
Class 
Book. 



CAMPAIGNS 



A NON-COMBATANT, 



ROMAUNT ABROAD DURING THE WAR. 



BY 

GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND. 



NEW Y R K : 
BLELOCK & COMPANY, 

1 9 B E E K ?.i A N Street, 
'"^'^ 18 6 6. 



"I- ■ 



ETitcred according to act of Congress, in the year 18uG, by 

GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Uuited States for 
the Soiitheru Distiict of New York. 



■e^ 







>^^i 



eCRYMCEOl R, "WniTCeME & CO., 

^siterfotjiprrs, 
15 Vv^vTi-u Street, Do.- ton. 



7 !//(? 



6 3»2b 



TO 

Who saw the war as vividly as he sang it ; and whose aims for the 
peace 4hat has ensued, are even nobler than the noble influence he 
exerted during the struggle, these chapters of travel are inscribed by 
his friend and coUeaofue. 



PREFACE 



In the early part of 18C3, while I was resident in London, — the 
first of the War Correspondents to go abroad, — I wrote, at the 
request of Mr. George Smith, publisher of the Cornhill Magazine, a 
series of chapters upon the Rebellion, thus introduced : — 

" Few wars have been so well chronicled, as that now desolating 
America. Its ofHcial narratives have been copious ; the great news- 
papers of the land have been represented In all its campaigns ; 
private enterprise has classified and illustrated its several events, and 
delegates of foreign countries have been allowed to mingle freely 
with Its soldiery, and to observe and describe its battles. The pen 
and the camera have accompanied its bayonets, and there has not 
probably been any skirmish, however insignificant, but a score of 
zealous scribes have remarked and recorded It. 

"I have employed some leisure hours afforded me in Europe, to 
detail those parts of the struggle which I witnessed in a civil capacity. 
The Sketches which follow are entirely personal, and dwell less upon 
routine incidents, plans, and statistics, than upon those lighter phases 
of war which fall beneath the dignity of severe history and are seldom 
related. I have endeavored to reproduce not only the adventures, 
but the impressions of a novitiate, and I have described not merely 
the army and Its operations, but the country invaded, and the people 
who inhabit It. 

♦* The most that I have hoped to do, is so to simplify a campaign 

(7) 



8 PIIEFACE. 

that the reader may realize it as if he had beheld it, travelluig at 
will, as I did, and with no greater interest than to see how fields were 
fought and won." 

To those chapters, I have added in this collection, some estimates 
of American life in Europe, and some European estimates of Ameri- 
can life ; with my ultimate experiences in the War afler my return to 
my own country. I cannot hope that they will be received with the 
same favor, either here or abroad, as that which greeted their original 
publication. But no man ought to let the first four years of his 
majority slip away unrecorded. I would rather publish a tolerable 
book now than a possibly good one hereafter. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, 



Romauut abroab irnring tlj^ UJar. 



CHAPTER I. 

MY IMPRESSMENT. 



** Here is a piece of James Franklin's printing press, Mr. 
Townsend," said Mr. Pratt to me, at Newport the other 
day, — '' Ben. Franklin wrote for the paper, and set type 
upon it. The press ^yas imported from England in 1*730, or 
thereabouts.'' 

Ke produced a piece of wood, a foot in length, and tlien 
laid it away in its drawer very sacredly. 

" I should like to write to that press, Mr. Pratt," I said, 
— " there would be no necessity in such a case of getting 
oif six columns for to-night's mail." 

" Well ! " said Mr. Pratt, philosophically, " I have a 
theory that a man grows up to machinery. As your day so 
shall your strength be. I believe you have telegraphed up 
to a House instrument, haven't you ? " 

''Mr. Pratt," cried I, with some indignation, ''your 
memory is too good. This is Newport, and I have come 
down to see the surf. Pray, do not remind me of hot hours 
in a newspaper office, the click of a Morse dispatch, and 
work far into the midnight I " 

So I left Mr. Pratt, of the Newport Mercury, with an 



10 CAMPAIGNS OF A K OX-COMB AT AXT. 

ostentation of affront, and bade James Brad}^ the boatman, 
hoist sail and carry me over to Dumpling Rocks. 

On the grassy parapet of the crumbling tower which once 
served the purposes of a fort, the transparent water hungering 
at its base, the rocks covered with fringe spotting the chan- 
nel, the ocean on my right hand lost in its own vastness, 
and Newport out of mind save when the town bells rang, or 

the dip of oars beat in the still swell of Narragansett, 

I lay dov/n, chafing and out of temper, to curse tlio only 
pleasurable labor I had ever undertaken. 

To me all places were workshops : the seaside, the 
springs, the summer mountains, the cataracts, the theatres, 
the panoramas of islet-fondled rivers speeding' by strange 
cities. I was condemned to look upon them all with mer- 
cenary eyes, to turn their gladness into torpid prose, and 
speak their -praises in turgid columns. Never nepenthe, 
never dbandonne, always wide-awake, and watching for 
saliences, I had gone abroad like a falcon, and roamed at 
home like a hungry jackal. Six fingers on my hand, one 
long and pointed, and ever dropping gall ; the ineradicable 
stain upon my thumb ; the widest of my circuits, with all 
my adventure, a paltry sheet of foolscap ; and the world in 
which 1 dwelt, no place for thought, or dreaminess, or love- 
making, — only the fierce, fast, flippant existence of news! 

And with this inward execration, I lay on Dumpling 
Rocks, looking to sea, and recalled the first fond hours of 
my newspaper life. 

To be a subject of old Hoe, the most voracious of men, I 
gave up the choice of three sage professions, and the sweet 
alternative of idling husbandry. / > '■ 

The day I graduated saw me an attache of the Philadel- 
phia Chameleon. I was to receive three dollars a week and 
be the heir to lordly prospects. In the long course of per- 
severing years I might sit in the cushions of the night-edi- 
tor, or speak of the striplings around me as "?7Z?/ reporters. '^ 

" There is nothing which you cannot attain," said Mr. 



* CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-CO^IBATANT. 11 

AxioSq, my employer, — '' think of the influence you exer- 
cise ! — more than a clergyman ; Horace Greeley was aa 
editor ; so was George D. Prentice ; the first has just been 
defeated for Congress ; the last lectured last night and got 
fifty dollars for it.'^ 

Hereat I was greatly encouraged, and proposed to write 
a leader for next day's paper upon the evils of the Fire De- 
partment. 

" Dear me,'^ said Mr. Axiom, '' you would ruin our' circu- 
lation at a wink ; what would become of our ball column ? 
in case of a fire in the building' we couldn't get a hose to play 
on it. Oh ! no, Alfred, writing leaders is hard and danger- 
ous ; I want you first to learn the use of a beautiful pair of 
scissors." 

I looked blank and chopfallen. 

^'No man can write a good hand or a good style," he 
said, "without experience with scissors. They give your 
palm flexibility and that is soon imparted to the mind. But 
perfection is attained by an alternate use of the scissors and 
the pen ; if a little paste be prescribed at the same time, co- 
hesion and steadfastness is imparted to the man." 

Ilis reasoning was incontrovertible ; but I damned his 
conclusions. 

So, I spent one month in slashing several hundred ex- 
changes a day, and paragraphing all the items. These re- 
appeared in a column called ''the latest information," and 
when I found them copied into another journal, a flush of 
satisfaction rose to my face. 

The editor of the Chameleon was an old journalist, whose 
face was a sealed book of Confucius, and who talked to me, 
patronizingly^, now and then, like the Delphic Oracle. His 
name was Watch, and he wore a prodigious pearl in his 
shirt-bosom. He crept up to the editorial room at nine 
o'clock every night, and dashed off an hour's worth of glit- 
tering generalities, at the end of which time two or three 
gentlemen, blooming at the nose, and with cheeks resem- 



12 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATANT. 

bling a map drawn in red ink, sounded the pipe below stairs, 
and Mr. Vfatch said — 

'' Mr. Townsend, I look to you to be on hand to-night; 
I am called away by the Water-Gas Company.'^ 

Then, with enthusiasm up to blood-heat, aroused by this 
mark of confidence, I used to set to, and scissor and v/rite 
till three o'clock, while Mr. Watch talked water-gas over 
brandy and water, and drew his thirty dollars punctually on 
Saturdays. 

So it happened that my news paragraphs, sometimes 
pointedly turned into a reflection, crept into the editorial 
columns, when water-gas was lively. Venturing more and 
more, the clipper finally indited a leader ; and Mr. Watch, 
whose nose water-gas was reddening, applauded me, and 
told me in his sublime way, that, as a special favor, I might 
write all the leaders the next night. Mr. Watch v/as seen 
no more in the sanctum for a week, and my three dollars 
carried on the concern. 

VvHien he returned, he generously gave me a dollar, and 
said that he had spoken of me to the Water-Gas Company as 
a capital secretar3\ Then he wrote me a pass for the Arch 
Street Theatre, and told me, benevolently, to go off and rest 
that night. 

For a month or more the responsibility of the Chameleon 
devolved almost entirely upon me. Child that I was, know- 
ing no world but my own vanity, and pleased with those 
who fed its sensitive love of approbation rather than with 
the just and reticent, I harbored no distrust till one day 
when Axiom visited the oSice, and I was drawing* my 
three dollars from the treasurer, I heard Mr. Watch exclaim, 
within the publisher's room — 

" Did you read my article on the Homestead Bill ? " 

"Yes," answered Axiom; "it was quite clever; your 
leaders are more alive and epigrammatic than they 
were.'' 

I could stand it no more. I bolted into the office, and 
cried — 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 13 

"The article on the Homestead Bill is mine, so is every 
other article in to-day's paper. Mr. Watch does not tell the 
truth ; he is ungenerous ! '^ 

" What's this, Watch ? " said iVxiom. 

"Alfred," exclaimed Mr. Watch, majestically, "adopts 
my suggestions very readily, and is quite industrious. I 
recommend that we raise his salary to five dollars a week. 
That is a large sum for a lad." 

That night the manuscript was overhauled in the compos- 
ing room. Watch's dereliction was manifest ; but not a 
word was said commendator}^ of my labor ; it was feared I 
might take " airs," or covet a further increase of wages. I 
only missed Watch's hugh pearl, and heard that he had been 
discharged, and was myself taken from the drudgery of the 
scissors, and made a reporter. 

All this was very recent, yet to me so far remote, that as 
I recall it all, I wonder if I am not old, and feel nervously 
of m.y hairs. For in the five intervening years I have ridden 
at Hoe speed down the groove of my steel-pen. 

The pen is my traction engine ; it has gone through 
worlds of fancy and reflection, dragging me behind it ; and 
long experience has given it so great facility, that I have 
only to fire up, whistle, and fix my couplings, and away 
goes my locomotive with no end of cars in train. 

Few journalists, beginning at the bottom, do not weary 
of the ladder ere they climb high. Few of such, or of others 
more enthusiastic, recall the early associations of "the 
Oifice '^ with pleasure. Yet there is no world more gro- 
tesque, none, at least in America, more capable of fictitious 
illustration. Around a newspaper all the dramatis personse 
of the world congregate ; Avitliin it there are staid idiosyn- 
cratic folk who admit of all kindly caricature. 

I summon from that humming and hurly-burly past, the 
ancient proof-reader. He wears a green shade over his eyes 
and the gas burner is drawn very low to darken the bald 
and v,^rinklGd contour of his forehead. He is severe in 



14 CAMPAIGNS OF A XOX-CO^j^BATANT. 

judgment and spells rigidly b}^ the Johnsonian standard. 
He punctuates by an obdurate and conscientious method, 
and will have no italics upon any pretext. Ho will lend 
you money, will eat with you, drink with you, and encour- 
age you ; but he will not punctuate with you, spell with 
you, nor accept any of your suggestions as to typography 
or paragraphing whatsoever. He wears slippers and smokes 
a primitive clay pipe ; he has everything in its place, and 
you cannot offend him more than by looking over any proof 
except v/hen he is holding it. A chip of himself is the copy- 
^ holder at his side, — a meagre, freckled, matter of fact 
3^outh,^vho reads your tcnderest sentences in a rapid mono- 
tone, and is never known to venture any opinion or sugges- 
tion whatever. This bo}^, I am bound to say, will follow 
the copy if it be all consonants, and will accompany it if it 
flies out of the window. \^^-^r^&-^^-^y^ 

The office clerk was my bane and admiration. He was 
presumed by the verdant patrons of the paper to be its 
owner and principal editor, its type-setter, pressman, and 
carrier. His hair v\^as elaborately curled, and his ears were 
perfect racks of long and dandyfied pens ; a broad, shovel- 
shaped gold pen lay forever opposite his high stool ; he had 
an arrogant and patronizing address, and was the perpetual 
cabbager of editorial perquisites. Books, ball-tickets, sea- 
son-tickets, pictures^ disappeared in his indiscriminate fist, 
and he promised notices which he could not write to no end 
of applicants. He was to be seen at the theatre every night, 
and he was the dashing escort of the proprietor's wife, v/ho 
preferred his jaunty coat and highly-polished boots to the 
less elaborate wardrobe of us writers. That this noble and 
fashionable creature could descend to writing wrappers, and 
to waiting his turn with a bank-book in the long train of a 
sordid teller, passed all speculation and astonishment. He 
made a sorry fag of the office bo}^, and advised us every day 
to beware of cutting the files, as if that were the one vice 
of authors. To him we stole, with humiliated faces, and 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 15 

begged a trifling advance of salary. He sternly requested 
us not to encroach behind the counter — his own indisput- 
able domain — but sometimes asked us to watch the office 
while he drank with a theatrical agent at the nearest bar. 
He was an inveterate gossip, and endowed with a damnable 
love of slipshod argument ; the only oral censor upon our 
compositions, he hailed us with all the complaints made at 
his solicitation by irascible subscribers, and stood in awe of 
the cashier only, who frequently, to our delight and surprise, 
combed him over, and drove him to us for sympathy. 

The foreman was still our power behind the throne ; he 
left out our copy on mechanical grounds, and put it in for 
our modesty and sophistry. In his broad, hot room, all 
flaring with gas, he stood at a flat stone like a surgeon, and 
took forms to pieces and dissected huge columns of preg- 
nant metal, and paid off the hands with fabulous amounts of 
uncurrent bank bills. His wife and he went thrice a year 
on excursions to the sea-side, and he was forever borrowing 
a dollar from somebody to treat the lender and himself. 

The ship-news man could be seen towards the small-hours, 
writing his highly imaginative department, which showed 
how the Sally Ann, Master Todd, arrived leaky in Bombay 
harbor ; and there were stacks of newsboys asleep on the 
boilers, fighting in their dreams for the possession of a frag- 
ment of a many-cornered blanket. 

These, like myself, went into the halcyon land of Nod to 
the music of a crashing press, and swarmed about it at the 
dav/n like so many gad flies about an ox, to carry into the 
av/akening city the rhetoric and the rubbish I had written. 

And still they go, and still the great press toils along, and 
still am I its slave and keeper, who sit here by the proud, 
free sea, and feel like Sinbad, that to a terrible old man I 
have sold my youth, my convictions, my love, my life I 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WAR correspondent's FIRST DAY. 

Looking back over the four years of the war, and noting 
how indurated I have at last becoiTie, both in body and in 
emotion, I recall with a sigh that first morning of my cor- 
respondentship when I set out so light-hearted and yet so 
anxious. It was in 1861. I was accompanied to the War 
department by an altache of the United States Senate. The 
new Secretary, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, referred me to a Mr. 
Sanford, ''Military Supervisor of Army Intelligence," and 
after a brief delay I was requested to sign a parole and du- 
plicate, specifying my loyalt}' to the Federal Government, 
and my promise to publish nothing detrimental to its inter- 
ests. I was then given a circular, which stated explicitly 
the kind of news termed contraband, and also a printed pass, 
filied in vv^ith my name, age, residence, and newspaper con- 
nection. The latter enjoined upon all guards to pass me in 
and out of camps ; and authorized persons in Government 
employ to furnish me with information. 

Our Washington Superintendent sent me a beast, and in 
compliment to what the animal might have been, called the 
same a horse. I wish to protest, in this record, against any 
such misnomer. The creature possessed no single equine 
element. Experience has satisiied me that horses stand on 
four legs ; the horse in question stood upon three. Horses 
may either pace, trot, run, rack, or gallop ; but mine made 
all the five movements at once. I think I may call his gait 

(IG) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COjIBATAXT. 17 

an eccentric stumble. That he had endurance I admit ; for 
he survived perpetual beating ; and his beauty might have 
been apparent to an anatomist, but would be scouted by the 
world at large. I asked, ruefully, if I was expected to go 
into battle so mounted ; but was peremptorily forbidden, as 
a valuable property might be endangered thereby. I was 
assigned to the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps in the antici- 
pated advance, and my friend, the aiiaclie, accompanied me 
to its rendezvous at Hunter's Mills. We started at two 
o'clock, and occupied an hour in passing the city limits. I 
calculated that, advancing at the same ratio, we should ar- 
rive in camp at noon next day. We presented ludicrous 
figures to the grim sabremen that sat erect at street corners, 
and ladies at the windows of the dwellings smothered with 
suppressed laughter as we floundered along. My friend 
had the better horse ; but I was the better rider ; and if at 
any time I grew wrathful at my sorry plight, I had but to 
look at -his and be happy again. He appeared to be riding 
on the neck of his beast, and when he attempted to deceive 
me with a smile, his face became horribly contorted. Di- 
rectly his breeches worked above his boots, and his bare 
calves were objects of hopeless solicitude. Caricatures, 
rather than men, we toiled bruisedly through Georgetown, 
and falling in the wake of supply teams on the Leesburg 
turnpike, rode between the Potomac on one side and the 
dry bed of the canal on the other, till we came at last to 
Chain Bridge. 

There was a grand view from the point of Little Falls 
above, where a line of foamy cataracts ridged the river, and 
the rocks towered gloomily on either hand : and of the city 
below, with its buildings of pure marble, and the yellow 
earthworks that crested Arlington Heights. The clouds 
over the Potomac were gorgeous in hue, but forests of mel- 
ancholy pine clothed the sides of the hills, and the roar of 
the river made such beautiful monotone that I almost thought 
it could be translated to words. Our passes were now de- 



18 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-C03IBATA2nT. 

manded by a fat, bareheaded o£Bcer, and while he panted 
through their contents, two privates crossed their bayonets 
before us. 

''News? " he said, in the shortest remark of which he 
was capable. When assured that we had nothing to reveal, 
he seemed immeasurably relieved, and added — ''Great 
labor, reading I '^ At this his face grew so. dreadfully 
purple that I begged him to sit down, and tax himself with 
no further exertion. He wiped his forehead, in reply, gasp- 
ing like a triton, and mutterijig the expressive direction, 
" right ! '' disappeared into a guard-box. The two privates 
winked as they removed their muskets, and we both laughed 
immoderately when out of hearing. Our backs were now 
turned to the Maryland shore, and jutting grimly from the 
hill before us, the black guns of Fort Ethan Allen pointed 
down the bridge. A double line of sharp abattis protected 
it from assault, and sentries walked lazily up and down the 
parapet. The colors hung against the mast in the dead 
calm, and the smoke curled straight upward from some log- 
huts within the fort. The wildness of the surrounding land- 
scape was most remarkable. Within sight of the Capital of 
the Republic, the fox yet kept the covert,, and the farms 
were few and far apart. It seemed to me that little had 
been done to clear the country of its primeval timber, and 
the war had accomplished more to give evidence of man and 
industry, than two centuries of occupation. A militar}^ 
road had been cut through the solid rocks here ; and the 
original turnpike, which had been little more than a cart 
track, was now graded and macadamized. I passed mul- 
titudes of teams, struggling up the slopes, and the carcasses 
of mules littered every rod of the way. The profanity of 
the teamsters was painfully apparent. I came unobserved 
upon one who was berating his beasts with a refinement of 
cruelty. He cursed each of them separately, swinging his 
long-lashed whip the while, and then damned the six in 
mass. He would have made a dutiful overseer. The sol- 



CA31FA1GNS OF A NON-C03IBATANT. 19 

diers had shown quite as little consideration for the resi- 
dences along the way. I came to one dwelling where some 
pertinacious Vandal had even pried out the window-frames, 
and imperilled his neck to tear out the roof-beams ; a dead 
vulture was pinned over the door by pieces of broken bayo- 
nets. 

"Langley's," — a few plank-houses, clustering around a 
tavern and a church, — is one of those settlements whose 
sounding names beguile the reader into an idea of their 
importance. A lonesome haunt in time of peace, it had 
lately been the winter quarters of fifteen thousand soldiers, 
and a multitude of log huts had grown up around it. I tied 
my horse to the window-shutter of a dwelling, and picked 
my way over a slimy sidewalk to the ricketty tavern-porch. 
Four or five privates lay here fast asleep, and the' bar-room 
was occupied by a bevy of young ofiScers, who were empty- 
ing the contents of sundry pocket-flasks. Behind the bar 
sat a person with strongly-marked Hebrew features, and a 
watchmaker was plying his avocation in a corner. Two 
great dogs crouched under a bench, and some highly-colored 
portraits were nailed to the wall. The floor was bare, and 
some clothing and miscellaneous articles hung from beams 
in the ceiling. 

" Is this your house? '^ I said to the Hebrew. 

'' I keepsh it now.'^ 

" By right or by conquest ? " 

''By ze right of conquest,^^ lie said, laughing; and at 
once proposed to sell me a bootjack and an India-Tubber 
overcoat. I compromised upon a haversack, which he filled 
with sandwiches and sardines, and which I am bound to say 
fell apart in the course of the afternoon. The watchmaker 
was an enterprising young fellow, who had resigned his 
place in a large Broadway establishment, to speculate in 
cheap jewelry and do itinerant repairing. He says that he 
followed the '' Army Paymasters, and sold numbers of 
watches, at good premiums, when the troops had money. ^^ 



20 CiUIPAIG>;S OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

Soldiers, he informed me, were reckless spendthrifts ; and 
the prey of sutlers and sharpers. When there was nothing 
at hand to purchase, they gambled away their wages, and 
most of them left the service penniless and in debt. lie 
thought it perfectly legitimate to secure some silver while 
" going," but complained that the value of his stock ren- 
dered him liable to theft and murder. /' There are men in 
every regiment," said he, " who would blow out my brains 
in any lonely place to plunder me of these watches." 

At this point, a young officer, in a fit of bacchanal laugh- 
ter, staggered rather roughly against me. 

" Begurpardon," he said, with an unsteady bow, ''never 
ran against person in life before." 

I smiled assuringly, but he appeared to think the offence 
unpardonable. 

"Do asshu a, on honor of gentlemand officer, not in 
custom of behaving oifensively. xizo ! leave it to my friends. 
Entirely due to injuries received at battle Draincsviile." 

As the other gentlemen laughed loudly here, I took it for 
granted that my apologist had some personal hallucination 
relative to that engagement. 

" What giggling for, Bob ? " he said ; " honor concerned 
in this matter, AVill ! Do asshu a, fell under Colonel's horse, 
and Company A w^alked over small of my back." The 
other officers were only less inebriated and most of them 
spoke boastfully of their personal prowess at Drainesville. 
This was the only engagement in which the Pennsylvania 
Reserves had yet participated, and few officers that I met 
did not ascribe the victory entirely to their own individual 
gallantry. I inquired of these gentlemen the route to the 
new encampments of the Reserves. They lay five miles 
south of the turnpike, close to the Loudon and Hampshire 
railroad, and along both sides of an unfrequented lane. 
They formed in this position the right wing of the Army of 
the Potomac, and had been ordered to hold themselves in 
hourly readiness for an advance. By this time, my friend 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 21 

S. came up, and leaving him to restore his mortified body, I 
crossed the road to the churchyard and peered through the 
open door into the edifice. The seats of painted pine had 
been covered with planks, and a sick man lay above every 
pew. At the ringing of my spurs in the threshold, some of 
the sufferers looked up through the red eyes of fever, and 
the faces of others were spectrally white. A few groaned 
as they turned with difficulty, and some shrank in pain from 
the glare of the light. Medicines were kept in the altar- 
place, and a doctor's clerk was writing requisitions in the 
pulpit. The sickening smell of the hospital forbade me to 
enter, and walking across the trampled yard, I crept through 
a rent in the paling, and examined the huts in which the 
Reserves had passed the winter. They were built of logs, 
plastered with mud, and the roofs of some were thatched 
with straw. Each cabin was pierced for two or more 
windows ; the beds were simply shelves or berths ; a 
rough fireplace of stones and clay communicated with the 
v/ooden chimney ; and the floors were in most cases damp 
and bare. Streets, fancifully designated, divided the set- 
tlement irregularly ; but the tenements were now all 
deserted save one, where I found a whole family of " contra- 
bands'^ or fugitive slaves. These wretched beings, seven 
in number, had escaped from a plantation in Albemarle 
county, and travelling stealthily by night, over tv/o hundred 
miles of precipitous country, reached the Federal lines on 
the thirteenth day. The husband said that his name was 
" Jeems," and that his wife was called '' Kitty ; '' that his 
youngest boy had passed the mature ago of eight months, 
and that the ''big girl. Rosy," was "twelve years Christ- 
mas comin'." Vfhile the troops remained at Langley's, the 
man v/as employed at seventy-five cents a week to attend to 
an officer's horse. Kitty and Rose cooked and washed for 
soldiers, and the boys ran errands to Washington and return, 
— twenty-five miles! The eldest hoj, Jefferson, had been 
given the use of a crippled team-horse, and traded in news- 



22 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-ODMBATANT. 

papers, but having confused ideas of the relative value of 
coins, his profits v^ere only moderate. The nag died before 
the troops removed, and a sutler, under pretence of securing 
their passage to the North, disappeared with the little they 
had saved. They v^ere quite destitute now, but looked to 
the future with no foreboding, and huddled together in the 
straw, made a picture of domestic felicity that impressed me 
greatly with the docility, contentment, and unfailing good 
humor of their dusky tribe. The eyes of the children were 
large and lustrous, and they revealed the clear pearls be- 
neath their lips as they clung bashfully to their mother's 
lap. The old lady was smoking a clay pipe ; the man run- 
ning over some castaway jackets and boots. I remarked par- 
ticularly the broad shoulders and athletic arms of the woman, 
whose ju^any childbirths had left no traces upon her comeliness. 
She asked me, wistfully : '' Masser, how fur to de nawf ?'' 

" A long way," said I, '' perhaps two hundred miles.'' 

"Lawd!" she said, buoyantly — ''is dat all? Why, 
Jeems, couldn't we foot it, honey ? " 

"You a most guv out before, ole 'oman," he replied; 
"got a good ruff over de head now. Guess de white massar 
won't let um starve." 

I tossed some coppers to the children and gave each a 
sandwich. 

" You get up dar, John Thomas ! " called the man vigor- 
ously ; "you tank de gentleman, Jefferson, boy ! I wonda 
wha your manners is. Tank you, massar ! know'd you was 
a gentleman, sar ! Massar, is your family from ole Vir- 
ginny?" 

It was five o'clock when I rejoined S., and the greater 
part of our journey had yet to be made. I went at his 
creeping pace until courtes}^ yielded to impatience, when 
spurring my Pegasus vigorously, he fell into a bouncing 
amble and left the attache far behind. My pass was again 
demanded above Langley's by a man who ate apples as he 
examined it, and who was disposed to hold a long parley. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 23 

I entered a region of scrub timber further on, and met with 
nothing human for four miles, at the end of which distance I 
reached Difficult Creek, flowing through a rocky ravine, and 
crossed by a military bridge of logs. Through the thick 
woods to the right, I heard the roar of the Potomac, and a 
finger-board indicated that I was opposite Great Falls. 
Three or four dead horses lay at the roadside beyond the 
stream, and I recalled the place as the scene of a recent 
cavalry encounter. A cartridge-box and a torn felt hat lay 
close to the carcasses : I knew that some soul had gone 
hence to its account. 

The road nov/ kept to the left oblique!}'', and much of my 
ride was made musical by the stream. Darkness closed 
solemnly about me, with seven miles of the journey yet to 
accomplish, and as, at eight o'clock, I turned from the turn- 
pike into a lonesome by-road, full of ruts, pools, and quick- 
sands, a feeling of delicious uneasiness for the first time 
possessed me. Some owls hooted in the depth of the woods, 
and wild pigs, darting across the road, went crashing into 
the bushes. The phosphorescent bark of a blasted tree 
glimmered on a neighboring knoll, and as I halted at a 
rivulet to water my beast, I saw a solitary star floating 
down the ripples. Directly I came upon a clearing where 
the moonlight shone through the rents of a crumbling dwell- 
ing, and from the far distance broke the faint howl of farm 
dogs. A sense of insecurity that I would not for worlds 
have resigned, now tingled, now chilled my blood. At last, 
climbing a stony hill, the skies lay beneath me reddening 
with the flame of camps and flaring and felling alternately, 
like the beautiful Northern lights. I heard the ring of hoofs 
as I looked entranced, and in a twinkling, a body of horse- 
men dashed past me and disappeared. A little beyond, the 
road grew so thick that I could see nothing of my way ; but 
trusting doubtfully to my horse, a deep challenge came 
directly from the thicket, and I saw the flash of a sabre, as I 
stammered a repl3^ Led to a cabin close at hand, my pass 



24 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C0MUATA2sT. 

was examined by candle-light, and I learned that the nearest 
camp of the Reserves was only a mile farther on, and the 
reo'iment of which 1 was in quest about two miles distant. 
After another half hour, I reached Ord's brigade, whose 
tents were pitched in a fine grove of oaks ; the men talking, 
singing, and shouting, around open air fires ; and a battery of 
brass Napoleons unlimbered in front, pointing significantly 
to the West and South. For a mile and a half I rode by the 
light of continuous camps, reaching at last the quarters of 

the th, commanded by a former newspaper associate of 

mine, v/ilh whom I had gone itemizing, scores of times. 
His regiment had arrived only the same afternoon, and their 
tents were not yet pitched. Their muskets were stacked 
along the roadside, and the men lay here and there wrapped 
in their blankets, and dozing around the fagots. The 
Colonel was asleep in a wagon, but roused up at the sum- 
mons of his Adjutant, and greeting me warmly, directed the 
cook to prepa-re a supper of cofiee and fried pork. Too 
hungry to feel the chafing of my sores and bruises, I fell to 
the oleaginous repast with my teeth and fingers, and eating 
ravenously, asked at last to be shown to my apartments. 
These consisted of a covered wagon, already occupied by 
four teamsters, and a blanket which had evidently been in 
close proximity to the hide of a horse. A man named 
" Goggle," being nudged by the Colonel, and requested to 
take other quarters, asked dolorously if it was time to turn 
out, and roared " woa,'^ as if he had some consciousness of 
being kicked. When I asked for a pillow, the Colonel 
laughed, and I had an intuition that the man " Coggle '' was 
looking at me in the darkness with intense disgust. The 
Colonel said that he had once put a man on double duty for 
placing his head on a snowball, and vrarned me satirically 
that such luxuries Vv^ere preposterous in the field. He 
recommended me not to catch cold if I could help it, but 
said that people in camp commonly caught several colds at 
once, and added grimly that if I wished to be shaved in the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB AT A 2s" T. 25 

morning, there was a man close by, who had ground a sabre 
down to the nice edge of a razor, and who could be made to 
accommodate me. There were cracks in the bottom of the 
wagon, through which the cold came like knives, and I was 
allotted a space four feet in length, by three feet in 
width. 

Being six feet in height, my relation to these Procrustean 
quarters was most embarassing ; but I doubled up, chatter- 
ingly, and lay my head on my arm. In a short time I expe- 
rienced a sensation akin to that of being guillotined, and 
sitting bolt upright, found the teamsters in the soundest of 
Lethean conditions. As the man next to me snored very 
loudly, I adopted the brilliant idea of making a pillow of 
his thigh ; which answered my best expectations. I was 
aroused oiler a while, by what I thought to be the violent 
hands of this person, but which, to my great chagrin, 
proved to be S., --intent upon dividing my place with me. 
Resistance was useless. I submitted to martyrdom with 
due resignation, but half resolved to go home in the morn- 
ing, and shun, for the future, the horrible romance of camps. 
3 



CHAPTER in. 

A GENERAL UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. 

When I awoke at Colonel Taggert's tent the morning af- 
terward, I had verified the common experience of camps by 
"catching several colds at once/' and felt a general sensa- 
tion of being cut off at the knees. Poor S., who joined me 
at the fire, states that he believed himself to be tied in 
knots, and that he should return afoot to Washington. Our 
horses looked no worso, for that would have been manifesllj' 
impossible. We were made the butts of much jesting at 
breakfast ; and S. said, in a spirit of atrocity, that camp wit 
was quite as bad as camp " wittles." I bade him adieu at 
five o'clock A. M., when he had secured passage to the city 
in a sutler's wagon. Eemounting my own fiery courser, I 
bade the Colonel a temporary farewell, and proceeded in the 
direction of Meade's and Reynold's brigades. The drum 
and fife were now beating reveille, and volunteers in various 
stages of undress were limping to roll-call. Some wore one 
shoe, and others appeared shivering in their linen. They 
stood ludicrously in rank, and a succession of short, dry 
coughs ran up and down the line, as if to indicate those 
who should escape the bullet for the lingering agonies of 
the hospital. The ground was damp, and fog was rising 
from the hollows and fens. Some signal corps officers were 
practising with flags in a ploughed field, and negro stewards 
were stirring about the cook fires. A few supply \^agons 
that I passed the previous day were just creaking into camp, 

(26) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KOX-COMBATANT. 27 

having travelled i]^ost of the night. I saw that the country 
was rude, but the farms were close, and the dwellings in 
many cases inhabited. The vicinity had previously been 
unoccupied by either army, and rapine had as yet appropri- 
ated only the fields for camps and the fences for fuel. I was 
directed to the headquarters of Major-General M'Call, — a 
cluster of wall tents in the far corner of a grain-field, con- 
cealed from public view by a projecting point of woods. A 
Sibley tent stood close at hand, where a soldier in blue over- 
coat was reading signals through a telescope. I mistook 
the tent for the General's, and riding up to the soldier was 
requested to stand out of the way. I moved to his rear, 
but he said curtly that I was obstructing the light. I then 
dismounted, and led my horse to a clump of trees a rod dis- 
tant. 

" Don't hitch there," said the soldier ; '' you block up the 
view." 

A little milled at this manifest discourtesy, I asked the 
man to denote some point within a radius of a mile where 
I would r.ot interfere with his operations. He said in reply, 
that it was not his business to denote hitching-stalls for 
anybody. I thought, in that case, that I should stay where 
I was, and he politely informed me that I might stay and be 
— jammed. I found afterward that this individual was 
troubled with a kind of insanity peculiar to all headquar- 
ters, arising out of an exaggerated idea of his own impor- 
tance. I had the pleasure, a few minutes afterward, of hear- 
i?ig him ordered to feed my horse. A thickset, gray-haired 
man sat near by, undergoing the process of shaving by a 
very nervous negro. The thickset man was also exercising 
the privileges of his rank ; but the more he berated his at- 
tendant's awkwardness, the more nervous the other became. 
I addressed myself mutually to master and man, in an in- 
quiry as to the precise quarters of the General in command. 
The latter pointed to a wall tent contiguous, and was cursed 
by the thickset man for not minding his business. The 



28 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

thickset man remarked substantially, tliaj^ he didn't know 
anything about it, and was at that moment cut by the negro, 
to my infinite delight. Before the wall tent in question 
stood a tall, broad-shouldered gentleman in shirt-sleeves and 
slippers, warming his back and hands at a fire. He was 
watching, ".rough an aperture in the tent, the movements 
of a private who was cleaning his boots. I noticed that he 
wore a seal ring, and that he opened and shut his eyes very 
rapidly. He was, otherwise, a very respectable and digni- 
fied gentlema^. 

''Is this General M'Call?^' said I, a little discomposed. 
The gentleman looked abstractedly into my eyes, opening 
and shutting his own several times, as if doubtful of his 
personality, and at last decided that he tvas General M'Call. 
" What is it ? '' he said gravely, but without the slightest 
curiosity. 

" I have a letter for you, sir, I believe." 
He put the letter behind his back, and went on warming 
his hands. Having winked several times again, apparently 
forgetting all about the matter, I ventured to add that the 
letter was merely introductory. He looked at it, mechan- 
ically. 

" Who opened it ? ^' he said. 

" Letters of introduction are not commonly sealed, Gen- 
eral." 

'' Who are you ? " he asked, indifferently. 
I told him that the contents of the letter would explain 
my errand ; but he had, meantime, relapsed into abstract- 
edness, and winked, and warmed his hands, for at least, five 
minutes. At the end of that time, he read the letter very 
deliberately, and said that he was glad to see me in camp. 
He intimated, that if I was not already located, I could be 
previded with bed and meals at headquarters. He stated, 
in relation to my correspondence, that all letters sent from the 
Reserve Corps, must, without any reservations, be submit- 
ted to him in person. I was obliged to promise compliance, 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 29 

but had gloomy forebodings that the General would occupy 
a fortnight in the examination of each letter. He invited 
me to breakfast, proposed to make me acquainted with his 
staff, and was, in all respects, a very grave, prudent, and 
affable soldier. I may say, incidentally, that I adopted 
the device of ^jpenning a couple of gossipy epistles, the 
length and folly of which, so irritated General M'Call, that 
he released me from the penalty of submitting my composi- 
tions for the future. 

I took up my permanent abode with quartermaster King- 
wait, a very prince of old soldiers, who had devoted much 
of a sturdy life to promoting the militia interests of the pop- 
ulous county of Chester. When the war-fever swept down 
his beautiful valley, and the drum called the young men 
from villages and farms, this ancient yeoman and miller — 
for he was both — took a musket at the sprightly age of 
sixty-five, and joined a Volunteer company. Neither ridi- 
cule nor entreaty could bend his purpose ; but the Secre- 
tary of War, hearing of the case, conferred a brigade quar- 
termastership upon him. ^ He threw off the infirmities of 
age, stepped as proudly as any youngster, and became, em- 
phatically, the best quartermaster in the Division. He 
never delayed an advance with tardy teams, nor kept the 
General tentless, nor penned irregular requisitions, nor 
wasted the property of Government. The ague seized him, 
occasionally, and shook his grey hairs fearfully ; but he al- 
ways recovered to ride his black stallion on long forages, 
and his great strength and bulk were the envy of all the 
young officers. 

He grasped my hand so heartily that I positively howled, 
and commanded a tall sergeant, rejoicing in the name of 
Clover, to take away my horse and split him up for kind- 
ling wood. 

" We must give him the blue roan, that Fogg rides,'^ 
said the quartermaster, to the gre^at dejection of Fogg, a 
short stout youth, who was posting accounts. I was glad 



30 CAMPAIGN'S OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

to see, however, that Fogg was not disposed to be angry, 
and when informed that a certain iron-gray nag was at his dis- 
posal, he was in a perfect glow of good humor. The other 
attaches were a German, whose name, as I caught it, seemed 
to be Skyhiski ; and a pleasant lad called Owen, whose dis- 
position was so mild, that I wondered howi he had adopted 
the bloody profession of arms. A black boy belonged to 
the establishment, remarkable, chiefly, for getting close to 
the heels of the black stallion, and being frequently kicked ; 
he was employed to feed and brush the said stallion, and 
the antipathy between them was intense. 

The above curious military combination, slept under a 
great tarpaulin canopy, originally used for covering com- 
missary stores from the rain. Our meals were taken in the 
open air, and prepared by Skyhiski ; but there was a second 
tent, provided with desk and secretary, where Mr. Fogg 
performed his clerk duties, daily. When I had relieved my 
Pegasus of his saddle, and penned some paragraphs for a 
future letter, I strolled down the road with the old gentle- 
man, who insisted upon showing me Hunter's mill, a storm- 
beaten structure, that looked like a great barn. The mill- 
race had been drained by some soldiers for the purpose of 
securing the fish contained in it, and the mill-wheel was 
quite dry and motionless. Difficult Creek ran impetuously 
across the road below, as if anxious to be put to some use 
again ; and the miller's house adjoining, was noAv used as a 
hospital, for Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, and some inferior 
officers. It was a favorite design of the Quartermaster's to 
scrape the mill-stone, repair the race, and put the great 
breast-wheel to work. One could see that the soldier had 
not entirely obliterated the miller, and as he related, with a 
glowing face, the plans that he had proposed to recuperate 
the tottering structure, and make it serviceable to the army, 
I felt a regret that such peaceful ambitions should have 
ever been overruled by the call to arms. 

While we stood at the mill window, watching the long 
stretches of white tents and speculating upon the results of 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 31 

war, we saw several men running across the road toward a 
hill-top cottage, where General Meade made his quarters. 
A small group was collected at the cottage, reconnoitring 
something through their telescopes. As I hastened in that 
direction, I heard confused voices, thus : '' No, it isn't I " 
"It is ! '' '' Can you make out his shoulder-bar ? '' 
" What is the color of his coat ? " '' Gray ! '' " No, it's 
butternut 1 " '' Has he a musket I " ''Yes, he is level- 
ling it I " At this the group scattered in every rlirection. 
" Pshaw ! " said one, " we are out of range ; besides, it is 
a telescope that he has. By , it is a Rebel, reconnoi- 
tring our camp ! " There was a manifest sensation here, 
and one man wondered how he had passed the picket. 
Another suggested that he might be accompanied by a 
troop, and a third convulsed the circle by declaring that 
there were six other Rebels visible in a woods to the left. 
Mr. Fogg had meantime come up and proffered me a field- 
glass, through which I certainly made out a person in gray, 
standing in the middle of the road just at the ridge of a 
hill. When I dropped my glass I saw him distinctly with 
the naked eye. He was probably a mile distant, and his 
gray vesture was little relieved by the blue haze of the 
forest. 

" He is going," exclaimed a private, excitedly ; " where's 
the man that was to try a lead on him ? " Several started 
impulsively for their pieces, and some ofScers called for 
their horses. " There go hiTS knees ! " " His body is be- 
hind the hill ! " " Now his head " 

"Crack! crack I crack!" spluttered musketry from the 
edge of the mill, and like as many rockets darted a score of 
horsemen through the creek and up the steep. Directly a 
faint hurrah pealed from the camp nearest the mill. It 
passed to the next camp and the next ; for all were now 
earnestly watching ; and finally a medley of cheers shook 
the air and the ear. Thousands of brave men were shout- 
ing the requiem of one paltry life. The rash fool had 
bought with his temerity a bullet in the brain. When I 



32 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

saw him — dusty and still bleeding — he was beset by a 
full regiment of idlers, to whom death had neither awe nor 
respect. They talked of the delicate shot, as connoisseurs 
in the art of murder, — and two men dug him a grave on 
the green before the mill, wherein he was tossed like a dog 
or a vulture, to be lulled, let us hope, by the music of the 
grinding, when grain shall ripen once more. 

I had an opportunity, after dinner, to inspect the camp of 
the " Bucktails,'' a regiment of Pennsylvania backwoods- 
men, whose efficiency as skirmishers has been adverted to 
by all chroniclers of the civil war. They wore the common 
blue blouse and breeches, but were distinguished by squir- 
rel tails fastened to their caps. They were reputed to be 
the best marksmen in the service, and were generally 
allowed, in action, to take their own positions and fire at 
will. Crawling through thick woods, or trailing ser- 
pent-like through the tangled grass, these mountaineers 
were for a time the terror of the Confederates ; but when 
their mode of fighting had been understood, their adversa- 
ries improved upon it to such a degree that at the date of 
this writing there is scarcely a Corporal's guard of the origi- 
nal Bucktail regiment remaining. Slaughtered on the field, 
perishing in prison, disabled or paroled, they have lost both 
their prestige and their strength. I remarked among these 
worthies a partiality for fisticuffs, and a dislike for the 
manual of arms. They drilled badly, and were reported to 
be adepts at thieving and unlicensed foraging. 

The second night in camp was pleasantly passed. Some 
sociable officers — favorites with Captain £ingwalt — con- 
gregated under the tarpaulin, after supper-hour, and when a 
long-necked bottle had been emptied and replenished, there 
were many quaint stories related and curious individualities 
revealed. I dropped asleep while the hilarity was at its 
height, and Fogg covered me with a thick blanket as I lay. 
The enemy might have come upon us in the darkness ; but 
if death were half so sound as my slumber afield, I should 
have bid it welcome. 



^1 



CHAPTER IV. 



A FORAGING ADVENTURE. 



There was a newsboy named " Charley/' who slept at 
Captain Kingwalt's every second night, and who returned 
my beast to his owner in Washington. The aphorism that 
a Yankee can do anything, was exemplified by this lad ; for 
he worked my snail into a gallop. He was born in Chelsea, 
Massachusetts, and appeared to have taken to speculation 
at the age when most children are learning ABC. He was 
now in his fourteenth year, owned two horses, and employed 
another boy to sell papers for him likewise. His profits upon 
daily sales of four hundred journals were about thirty-two 
dollars. He had five hundred dollars in bank, and was 
debating with Captain Kingwalt the propriety of founding 
an army express and general agency. Such a self-reliant, 
swaggering, far-sighted, and impertinent boy I never knew. 
He was a favorite with the Captain's black-boy, and upon 
thorough terms of equality with the Commanding General. 
His papers cost him in Washington a cent and a half each, 
and he sold them in camp for ten cents each. I have not the 
slightest doubt that I shall hear of him again as the propri- 
etor of an overland mail, or the patron and capitalist of 
Greenland emigration. 

I passed the second and third days quietly in camp, writ- 
ing a couple of letters, studying somewhat of fortification, 
and making flying visits to various officers. There was but 
one other Reporter with this division of the army. He rep- 

(83) 



34 CAMPAIGNS OF A XO>:-C<53IBATAKT. 

resented a New York journal, and I could not but contrast 
his fine steed and equipments with the scanty accommoda- 
tions that my provincial establishment had provided for me. 
His saddle was a cushioned McClellan, with spangled breast- 
strap and plump saddle-bags, and his bridle was adorned 
with a bright curb bit and twilled reins. He wore a field- 
glass belted about his body, and v^^as plentifully provided 
vv^ith money to purchase items of news, if they were at any 
time difficult to obtain. I resolved inwardly to seize the 
first opportunity of changing establishments, so that I 
might be placed upon as good a footing. My relations with 
camp, otherwise, were of the happiest character ; for the 
troops were State-people of mine, and, as reporters had not 
yet abused the privileges accorded them, my profession was 
held in some repute. I made the round of various ''messes,'' 
and soon adopted the current dissipations of the field, — late 
hours, long stories, incessant smoking, and raw spirits. 
There were some restless minds about me, whose funds of 
anecdote and jest were apparently inexhaustible. I do not 
know that so many eccentric, adventurous, and fluent people 
are to be found among any other nationality of soldiers, not 
excepting the Irish. 

The blue roan of which friend Fogg had been deprived, 
exhibited occasional evidences of a desire to break my neck. 
I was obliged to dispense with the spur in riding him, but 
he nevertheless dashed off at times, and put me into an 
agony of fear. On those occasions I managed to retain my 
seat, and gained thereby the reputation of being a very fine 
equestrian. As there were few civilians in camp, and as I 
wore a gray suit, and appeared to be in request at head-quar- 
ters, a rumor was developed and gained currency that I was 
attached to the Division in the capacity of a scout. When 
my horse became unmanageable, therefore, his speed was 
generally accelerated by the cheers of soldiers, and I became 
an object of curiosity in every quarter, to my infinite mor- 
tification and dread. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 35 

The Captain was to set off on the fourth day, to purchase 
or seize some hay and grain that were stacked at neighbor- 
ing farms. We prepared to go at eight o'clock, but were 
detained somewhat by reason of Skyhiski being inebriated 
the night before, and thereby delaying the breakfast, and 
afterward the fact that the black stallion had laid open the 
black-boy's leg. However, at a quarter past nine, the Cap- 
tain, Sergeant Clover, Fogg, Owen, and myself, with six 
four-horse wagons, filed down the railroad track until we 
came to a bridge that some laborers were repairing, where 
we turned to the left through some soggy fields, and forded 
Difficult Creek. As there was no road to follow, we kept 
straight through a wood of young maples and chestnut- 
trees. Occasionally a trunk or projecting branch stopped 
the wagons, when the teamsters opened the way with their 
axes. After two hours of slow advance, we came to the 
end of the wood, and climbed a succession of hilly fields. 
From the summit of the last of these, a splendid sweep of 
farm country was revealed, dotted with quaint Virginia 
dv\rellings, stackyards, and negro-cabins, and divided by 
miles of tortuous worm-fence. The e3^es of the Quartermas- 
ter brightened at the prospect, though I am afraid that he 
thought only of the abundant forage ; but my own grew 
hazy as I spoke of the peaceful people and the neglected fields. 
The plough had furrowed none of these acres, and some 
crows, that screamed gutturally from a neighboring ash- 
tree, seemed lean and pinched for lack of their plunder of 
corn. 

Many of the dwellings were guarded by soldiers ; but of 
the resident citizens only the women and the old men 
remained. I did not need to ask where the young men 
v/ere exiled. The residue that prayed with their faces 
toward Richmond, told me the story with their ej^es. There 
was, nevertheless, no melodramatic exhibition of feeling 
among the bereaved. I did not see any defiant postures, 
nor hear any melting apostrophies. Marius was not 



36 CA3IPAIGNS OF A KON-CO^BATANT. 

mouthing by the ruins of Carthage, nor even Rachel weep- 
ing for her Hebrew children. But there were on every liand 
manifestations of adherence to the Southern cause, except 
among a fev/ males who feared unutterable things, and were 
disposed to cringe and prevaricate. The women were not 
generally handsome ; their face was indolent, their dress 
slovenly, and their manner embarrassed. They lopped off 
the beginnings and the ends of their sentences, generally 
commencing with a verb, as thus : ''Told soldiers not to 
carr' off the rye ; declared they would ; said they bound do 
jest what they pleased. Let 'em go ! '' 

The Captain stopped at a spruce residence, approached 
by a long lane, and on knocking at the porch with his pon- 
derous fist, a woman came timidly to the kitchen window, 

" Who's thar ? " she said, after a moment. 

" Come out young woman," said the Captain, soothingly ; 
" we don't intend to murder or rob you, ma'am ! " 

There dropped from the doorsill into the yard, not one, 
but three young women, followed by a very deaf old man, 
who appeared to think that the Captain's visit bore some 
reference to the hencoop. 

" I wish to buy for the use of the United States Govern- 
ment," said the Captain, " some stacks of hay and corn 
fodder, that lie in one of your fields." 

" The last hen was toted off this morning before break- 
fast," said the old man ; " they took the turkeys yesterday, 
and I was obliged to kill the ducks or I shouldn't have had 
anything to eat." 

Here Fogg so misdemeaned himself, as to laugh through 
his nose, and the man Clover appeared to be suddenly inter- 
ested in something that lay in a mulberry-tree opposite. 

"I am provided with money to pay liberally for your 
produce, and you cannot do better than to let me take the 
stacks : leaving you, of course, enough for your own horses 
and cattle." 

Here the old man pricked up his ears, and said that he 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 37 

hadn't heard of any recent battle ; for his part, he had never 
been a politician ; but thought that both parties were a little 
wrong ; and wished that peace would return : for he was a 
very old man, and was sorry that folks couldn't let quiet folks' 
property alone. How far his garrulity might have betrayed 
him, could be conjectured only by one of the girls taking 
his hand and leading him submissively into the house. 

The eldest daughter said that the Captain might take the 
stacks at his own valuation, but trusted to his honor as a 
soldier, and as he seemed, a gentleman, to deal justly by 
them. There could be no crop harvested for a twelve- 
month, and beggary looked them in the face. I have never 
beheld anything more chivalrously gallant, than the sturdy 
old quartermaster's attitude. He blended in tone and 
face the politeness of a diplomat and the gentleness of a 
father. They asked him to return to the house, with his 
officers, when he had loaded the wagons ; for dinner was 
being prepared, and they hoped that Virginians could be 
hospitable, even to their enemies. As to the hay and 
fodder, none need be left ; for the Confederates had seized 
their horses some months before, and driven off their cows 
v/hen they retired from the neighborhood. 

I so admired the queer gables and great brick ovens of 
the house, that I resolved to tie my horse, and rest under 
the crooked porch. The eldest young lady had taken me 
to be a prisoner, and was greatly astonished that the Quar- 
termaster permitted me to go at large. She asked me to 
have a chair in the parlor, but when I made my appearance 
there, the two younger sisters fled precipitately. The old 
man was shaking his head sadly by the fireplace. Some logs 
burned on the andirons with a red flame. The furniture 
consisted of a mahogany sideboard, table, and chairs, — pon- 
derous in pattern ; and a series of family portraits, in a 
sprawling style of art, smirked and postured on the wall. 
The floor was bare, but shone by reason of repeated scrub- 
4 



38 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON*-COMBATANT. 

bing, and the black mantel-piece was a fine sjoecimen of 
colonial carving in the staunchest of walnut-wood. 

Directly the two younger girls — though the youngest 
must have been twenty years of age — came back with 
averted eyes and the silliest of giggles. They sat a little 
distance apart, and occasionally nodded or signalled like 
school children. 

" Wish you would stop, Bell ! '' said one of these misses, 
— whose flaxen hair was plastered across her eyebrows, and 
who was very tall and slender. 

" See if I don't tell on you,'^ said the other, — a dark 
miss with roguish eyes and fat, plump figure, and curls that 
shook ever so merrily about her shoulders. 

" Declar' I never said so, if he asks me ; declar' I will." 

'' Tell on you, — you see ! Won't he be jealous ? How 
he will car' on ! " 

I made out that these young ladies were intent upon pub- 
lishing their obligations to certain sweethearts of theirs, 
who, as it afterward seemed, were in the army at Manassas 
Junction. I said to the curly-haired miss, that she was 
endangering the life of her enamored ; for it would become 
an object with all the anxious troops in the vicinity to shorten 
his days. The old man roused up here, and remarked that 
his health certainly was declining ; but he hoped to survive 
a while longer for the sake of his children ; that he was no 
politician, and always said that the negroes were very un- 
grateful people. lie caught his daughter's eye finall}^ 
and cowered stupidly, nodding at the fire. 

I remarked to the eldest young woman, — called Prissy 
(Priscilla) by her sister, — that the country hereabout was 
pleasantly wooded. She said, in substance, that every part 
of Virginia was beautiful, and that she did not wish to sur- 
vive the disgrace of the old commonwealth. 

" Become right down hateful since Yankees invaded it ! " 
exclaimed Miss Bell. Some Yankee's handsome sister," 
said Miss Bessie, the proprietor of the curls, " think some 
Yankees puffick gentlejnen ! " 



CA,MPAIGNS OF A KOX-COMBATANT. 39 

" Oh, you traitor I '^ said the other, — '' wish Henry heard 
you say that! '^ 

Miss Bell intimated that she should take the first oppor- 
tunity of telling him the same, and I eulogized her good 
judgment. Priscilla now begged to be excused for a mo- 
ment, as, since the flight of the negro property, the care of 
the table had devolved mainly upon her. A single aged 
servant, too feeble or too faithful to decamp, still attended 
to the menial functions, and two mulatto children remained 
to relieve them of light labor. She was a dignified, ma- 
tronl^^ young lady, and, as one of the sisters informed me, 
plighted to a Major in the Confederate service. The others 
chattered flippantly for an hour, and said that the old place 
was dreadfully lonesome of late. Miss Bell was sure she 
should die if another v/inter, similar to the last, occurred. 
She loved company, and had always found it so lively in 
Loudon before ; whereas she had positivel}' been but twice 
to a neighbor's for a twelvemonth, and had quite forgotten 
the road to the mill. She said, finally, that, rather than 
undergo another such isolation, she would become a Vivan- 
diere in the Yankee army. The slender sister was alto- 
gether wedded to the idea of her lover's. " Woiddn't she 
tell Henry ? and shoiddnH she write to Jeems ? and oh, 
Bessie, you would not dare to repeat that before /im?i." In 
shorij, I was at first amused, and afterwards annoyed, by 
this young lady, whereas the roguish-eyed miss improved 
greatly upon acquaintance. 

After a while. Captain Kingwalt came in, trailing his 
spurs over the floor, and leaving sunshine in his wake. 
There was something galvanic in his gentleness, and infec- 
tious in his merriment. He told them at dinner of his own 
daughters on the Brandy wine, and invented stories of Fogg's 
courtships, till that young gentleman first blushed, and 
afterward dropped his plate. Our m.eal was a frugal one, 
consisting mainly of the ducks referred to, some vegetables, 
corn-bread, and cotTee made of wasted rye. There were 



40 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-»COMBATANT. 

neither sugar, spices, nor tea, on the premises, and the salt 
before us was the last in the dwelling. The Captain prom- 
ised to send them both coffee and salt, and Fogg volunteered 
to bring the same to the house, whereat the Captain teased 
him till he left the table. 

At this time, a little hoj, who was ostensibly a waiter, 
cried : '* Miss Prissy, soldiers is climbin' in de hog-pen." 

" I knew we should lose the last living thing on the prop- 
erty," said this young lady, much distressed. 

The Captain went to the door, and found three strolling 
Bucktails looking covetously at the swine. They were a 
little discomposed at his appearance, and edged off suspi- 
ciously. 

"Halt! " said the old man in his great voice, "where 
are you men going ? " 

''Just makin' reconnoissance," said one of the freeboot- 
ers ; " s'pose a feller has a right to walk around, hain't 
he?" 

"Not unless he has a pass," said the Quartermaster; 
" have you written permission to leave camp ? " 

" Left'nant s'posed we might. Don't know as it's your 
business. Never see you in the regiment." 

" It is my business, as an officer of the United States, to 
see that no soldier strays from camp unauthorizedly, or dep- 
redates upon private property. I will take your names, and 
report you, first for straggling, secondly for insolence ! " 

"Put to it. Bill!" said the speaker of the foragers; 
" run. Bob ! go it hearties ! " And they took to their heels, 
cleared a pair of fences, and were lost behind some out- 
buildings. The Captain could be harsh as well as gener- 
ous, and was about mounting his horse impulsively, to 
overtake and punish the fugitives, when Priscilla begged 
him to refrain, as an enforcement of discipline on his part 
might bring insult upon her helpless household. I availed 
myself of a pause in the Captain's wrath, to ask Miss Pris- 
cilla if she would allow me to lodge in the dwelling. Five 



aVIMPxVIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 41 

nights' experience in camp had somewhat reduced my en- 
thusiasm, and I already wearied of the damp beds, the hard 
fare, and the coarse conversation of the bivouac. The 
young lady assented willingly, as she stated that the pres- 
ence of a young man would both amuse and protect the 
family. For several nights she had not slept, and had im- 
agined footsteps on the porch and the drawing of window- 
bolts. There was a bed, formerly occupied b}^ her brother, 
that I might take, but must depend upon rather laggard at- 
tendance. I had the satisfaction, therefore, of seeing the 
Captain and retinue mount their horses, and wave me a tem- 
porary good by. Poor Fogg looked back so often and so 
seriously that I expected to see him fall from the saddle. 
The young ladies were much impressed with the Captain's 
manliness, and Miss Bell wondered liow such a puffich gen- 
tleman could reconcile himself to the Yankee cause. She 
had felt a desire to speak to him upon that point as she was 
sure he was of fine stock, and entirely averse to the inva- 
sion of such territory as that of dear old Virginia. There 
was something in his manner that so reminded her of some 
one who should be nameless for the present ; but the " name- 
less " was, of course, young, handsome, and so brave. I 
ruthlessly dissipated her theory of the Captain's origin, by 
stating that he was of humble German descent, so far as I 
knew, and had probably never beheld Virginia till preceded 
by the bayonets of his neighbors. 

After tea Miss Bessie produced a pitcher of rare cider, 
that came from a certain mysterious quarter of the cellar. 
A chessboard was forthcoming at a later hour, when v/e 
amused ourselves with a couple of games, facetiously dub- 
bing our chessman Federals and Confederates. Miss Bell, 
meanwhile, betook herself to a diary, wherein she minutely 
related the incidents and sentiments of successive days. 
The quantity of words underscored in the same autobiog- 
raphy would have speedily exhausted the case of italics, if 
the printer had obtained it. I was so beguiled by these pa- 
4* 



42 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

triarchal people, that I several times asked mj^self if the cir- 
cumstances were real. Was I in a hostile country, sur- 
rounded by thousands of armed men ? Were the incidents 
of this evening portions of an historic era, and the ground 
about me to be commemorated by bloodshed ? Was this, in 
fact, revolution, and were these simple country girls and 
their lovers revolutionists ? The logs burned cheerily upon 
the hearth, and the ancestral portraits glowered contempla- 
tively from the walls. Miss Prissy looked dreamily into 
the fire, and the old man snored wheezily in a corner. A 
gray cat purred in Miss Bell's lap, and Miss Bessie was 
writing some nonsense in my note-book. 

A sharp knock fell upon the door, and something that 
sounded like the butt of a musket shook the porch without. 
The girls turned pale, and I think that Miss Bessie seized 
my arm and clung to it. I think also, that Miss Bell at- 
tempted to take the other arm, to which I demurred. 

" Those brutal soldiers again I " said Priscilla, faintly 

''I think one of the andirons has fallen down, darter I" 
said the old man, rousing up. 

''Tremble for my life," said Miss Bell ; " sure shall die if 
it's a manJ^ 

I opened the door after a little pause, when a couple of 
rough privates in uniform confronted me. 

" We're two guards that General Meade sent to protect 
the house and property," said the tallest of these men ; 
" might a feller come in and warm his feet ! " 

I understood at once that the Quartermaster had obtained 
these persons ; and the other man coming forward, said — 

'' I fetched some coffee over, and a bag o' salt, with Cor- 
poral Fogg's compliments." 

They deposited their muskets in a corner, and balanced 
their boots on the fender. Nothing was said for a time. 

'' Did you lose yer poultry ? " said the tall man, at length. 

''AH," said Miss Priscilla. 

"Fellers loves poultry!" said the man, smacking his 
lips. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 43 

''Did you lose yer sheep ?'^ said the same man, after a 
little silence. 

" The Bucktails cut their throats the first day that they 
encamped at the mill/' said Miss Priscilla. 

" Them Bucktails great fellers/' said the tall man ; 
" them Bucktails awful on sheep : they loves 'em so ! " 

He relapsed again for a few minutes, when he continued : 

" You don't like fellers to bag yer poultry and sheep, do 
you ? " 

Miss Priscilla replied that it was both dishonest and 
cruel. Miss Bell intimated that none but Yankees would 
do it. 

" P'raps not," said the tall soldier, drily ; "did you ever 
grub on fat pork, Miss ? No ? Did you ever gnaw yer hard 
tack after a spell o' sickness, and a ten-hour march ? No ? 
P'raps you might like a streak o' mutton arterwards I 
P'raps 3^ou might take a notion for a couple o' chickens or 
so I No ? How's that, Ike ? What do you think, pard- 
ner ? (to me) I ain't over and above cruel, mum. I don't 
think the Bucktails is over and above dishonest to home, 
mum. But, gosh hang it, I think I would bag a chicken any 
day I I say that above board. Hey, Ike ? " 

When the tall man and his inferior satellite had warmed 
their boots till they smoked, they rose, recovered their mus- 
kets, and bowed themselves into the yard. Soon afterward 
I bade the young ladies good night, and repaired to my room. 
The tall man and his associate were pacing up and down the 
grass-plot, and they looked very cold and comfortless, I 
thought. I should have liked to obtain for them a draught 
of cider, but prudently abstained ; for every man in the 
army would thereby become cognizant of its existence. So 
I placed my head once more upon a soft pillow, and pitied 
the chilled soldiers who slept upon the turf. 1 thought of 
Miss Bessie with her roguish eyes, and wondered what 
themes were now engrossing her. I asked myself if this 
was the romance of war, and if it would bear relating to 



44 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAJNT. 

one's children when he grew as old and as deaf as the 
wheezy gentleman down-stairs. In fine, I was a little sen- 
timental, somewhat reflective, and very drowsy. So, after 
a while, processions of freebooting soldiers, foraging Quar- 
termasters, deaf gentlemen, Fogg's regiment, and multi- 
tudes of ghosts from Manassas, drifted by in my dreams. 
And, in the end. Miss Bessie's long curls brushed into my 
eyes, and I found the morning, ruddy as her cheeks, blush- 
ing at the window. 



CHAPTER V. 



WHAT A MAECH IS IN FACT. 



I FOUND at breakfast, that Miss Bessie had been placed 
beside me, and I so far forgot myself as to forget all other 
persons at the table. Miss Priscilla asked to be helped to 
the corn-bread, and I deposited a quantity of the same upon 
Miss Bessie's plate. Miss Bell asked if I did not love dear 
old Virginia, and I replied to Miss Bessie that it had lately 
become very attractive, and that, in fact, I was decidedly 
rebellious in my sympathy with the distressed Virginians. 
I did except, however, the man darkly mooted as " HcDry,'' 
and hoped that he would be disfigured — not killed — at 
the earliest engagement. The deaf old gentleman bristled 
up here and asked who had been killed at the recent engage- 
ment. There was a man named Jeems Lee, — a distant 
connection of the Lightfoots, — not the Ilampshire Light- 
foots, but the Fauquier Lightfoots, — who had distinctly 
appeared to the old gentleman for several nights, robed in 
black, and carrying a coffin under his arm. Since I had 
mentioned his name, he recalled the circumstance, and 
hoped that Jeems Lightfoot had not disgraced his ancestry. 
Nevertheless, the deaf gentleman was not to be understood 
as expressing any opinion upon the merits of the war. For 
Ms part he thought both sides a little wrong, and the crops 
were really in a dreadful state. The negroes were very un- 
grateful people and property should be held sacred by all 
belligerents. 

(45) 



46 CAMPAIG^iS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

At this point he caught Miss Priscilla's eye, and was 
transfixed with conscious guilt. 

I had, meantime, been infringing upon Miss Bessie's feet, 
— very pretty feet they were ! — which expressive but not 
very refined method of correspondence caused her to blush 
to the eyes. Miss Bell, noticing the same, was determined 
to tell ' Henry ' at once, and I hoped in my heart that she 
would set out for Manassas to further that purpose. 

The door opened here, and the rubicund visage of Mr. 
Fogg appeared like the head of the Medusa. lie said that 
' Captain ' had ordered the blue roan to be saddled and 
brought over to me, but I knew that this was a cunning 
device on his part, to revisit the dwelling. Miss Bell, 
somehow caught the idea that Fogg was enamored of her, 
and the poor fellow was subjected to a volley of tender 
innuendos and languishing glances, that by turn mortified 
and enraged him. 

I bade the good people adieu at eight o'clock, promising 
to return for dinner at five ; and Miss Bessie accompanied 
me to the lane, where I took leave of her with a secret 
whisper and a warm grasp of the hand. One of her rings 
had somehov/ adhered to my finger, which Fogg remarked 
with a bilious expression of countenance. I had no sooner 
got astride of the blue roan than he darted off like the wind, 
and subjected me to great terror, alternating to chagrin, 
when I turned back and beheld all the young ladies waving 
their handkerchiefs. They evidently thought me an unri- 
valled equestrian. 

I rode to a picket post two miles from the mill, passing 
over the spot where the Confederate soldier had fallen. 
The picket consisted of two companies or one hundred and 
sixty men. Half of them were sitting around a fire con- 
cealed in the woods, and the rest were scattered along the 
edges of a piece of close timber. I climbed a lookout-tree by 
means of cross-strips nailed to the trunk, and beheld from 
the summit a long succession of hazy hills, valleys, and 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N02n-C03IBATANT. 47 

forests, with the Blue Ridge Mountains bounding the dis- 
tance, like some mighty monster, enclosing the world in its 
coils. This was the country of the enemy, iind a Lieutenant 
obligingly pointed out to me the curling smoke of their 
pickets, a few miles away. The cleft of Manassas Avas 
plainly visible, and I traced the line of the Gap Railway to 
its junction with the Orange and Alexandria road, below 
Bull Run. For aught that I knew, some concealed observer 
might now be watching me from the pine-tops on the near- 
est knoll. Some rifleman might be running his practised 
eye down the deadly groove, to topple me from my perch, 
and send me crashing through the boughs. The uncer- 
tainty, the hazard, the novelty of my position had at this 
time an indescribable charm : but subsequent exposures 
dissipated the romance and taught me the folly of such 
adventures. 

The afternoon went dryly by : for a drizzling rain fell at 
noon ; but at four o'clock I saddled the blue roan and went 

to ride with Fojro'. We retraced the road to Colonel T s, 

and crossing a boggy brook, turned up the hills and passed 
toward the Potomac. Fogg had been a schoolmaster, and 
many of his narrations indicated keen perception and clever 
comprehension. He so amused me on this particular occa- 
sion that I quite forgot my engagement for dinner, and 
unwittingly strolled bej^ond the farthest brigade. 

Suddenly, we heard a bugle-call from the picket-post 
before us, and, at the same moment, the drums beat from the 
camp behind. Our horses pricked up their ears and Fogg 
stared inquiringly. As we turned back we heard approach- 
ing hoofs and the blue roan exhibited intentions of running 
away. I pulled his rein in vain. He would neither be 
soothed nor commanded. A whole company of cavalry 
closed up with him at length, and the sabres clattered in 
their scabbards as they galloped toward camp at the top of 
their speed. With a spring that almost shook me from the 
saddle and drove the stirrups flying from my feet, the blue 



48 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COilBATANT. 

roan dashed the dust into the eyes of Fogg, and led the 
race. 

Not the wild yager on his gait to perdition, rode so fear- 
fully. Trees, bogs, huts, bushes, went by like lightning. 
The hot breath of the nag rose to my nostrils and at every 
leap I seemed vaulting among the spheres. 

I speak thus flippantly now, of what was then the agony 
of death. I grasped the pommel of my saddle, mechanically 
winding the lines about my wrist, and clung with the tenac- 
ity of sin clutching the world. Some soldiers looked won- 
deringly from the wayside, but did not heed my shriek 
of stop him, for God's sake ! '' A ditch crossed the lane, 
— deep and wide, — and I felt that my moment had come : 
with a spring that seemed to break thew and sinew, the 
blue roan cleared it, pitching upon his knees, but recovered 
directly and darted onward again. I knew that I should 
fall headlong now, to be trampled by the fierce horsemen 
behind, but retained my grasp though my heart was choking 
me. The camps were in confusion as I swept past them. 
A sharp clearness of sense and thought enabled me to note 
distinctly the minutest occurrences. I marked long lines of 
men gloaked, and carrying knapsacks, drummer-boys beat- 
ing music that I had whistled in many a ramble, — field- 
officers shouting orders from their saddles, and cannon lim- 
bered up as if ready to move, — tents taken down and teams 
waiting to be loaded; all the evidences of an advance, that 
I alas should never witness, lying bruised and mangled by 
the roadside. A cheer saluted me as I passed some of 
Meade's regiments. ''It is the scout that fetched the 
orders for an advance ! '' said several, and one man re- 
marked that " that feller was the most reckless rider he 
had ever beheld.'' The crisis came at length : a wagon 
had stopped the way ; my horse in turning it, stepped upon 
a stake, and slipping rolled heavily upon his side, tossing 
me like an acrobat, ovoy his head, but without further 
injury than a terrible nervous shock and a rent in my panta- 
loons. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 49 

I employed a small boy to lead the blue roan to Captain 
Kingwalt's quarters, and as I limped wearily after, some 
regiments came toward me through the fields. General 
McCall responded to my salute ; he rode in the advance. 
The Quartermaster's party was loading the tents and uten- 
sils. The rain fell smartl}^ as dusk deepened into night, and 
the brush tents now deserted by the soldiers, were set on 
fire. Being composed of dry combustible material, they 
burned rapidly and with an intense flame. The fields in 
every direction were revealed, swarming with men, horses, 
batteries, and wagons. Some of the regiments began the 
march in silence ; others sang familiar ballads as they moved 
in column. A few, riotously disposed, shrieked, whistled, 
and cheered. The standards were folded ; the drums did 
not mark time ; the orders were few and short. The can- 
noneers sat moodily upon the caissons, and the cavalry-men 
walked their horses sedately. Although fifteen thousand 
men comprised the whole corps, each of its three brigades 
would have seemed as numerous to a novice. The teams 
of each brigade closed up the rear, and a quartermaster's 
guard was detailed from each regiment to march beside its 
ov/n wagons. When the troops were fairly under way, and 
the brush burning along from continuous miles of road, the 
effect was grand beyond all that I had witnessed. The 
country people gathered in fright at the cottage doors, and 
the farm-dogs bayed dismally at the unwonted scene. I 
refused to ride the blue roan again, but transferred my saddle 
to a team horse that appeared to be given to a sort of equine 
somnambulism, and once or twice attempted to lie down by 
the roadside. At nine o'clock I set out with Fogg, who 
slipped a flask of spirits into my haversack. Following the 
tardy movement of the teams, we turned our faces toward 
Washington. I was soon wet to the skin, and my saddle cush- 
ion was soaking with water. The streams crossing the road 
were swollen with rain, and the great team wheels clogged 
on the slimy banks. We were sometimes delayed a half 



50 CA5IPAIGNS OF A NOX-COjIBATANT. 

hour by a single wagon, the storm beating pitilessly in our 
faces the while. During the stoppages, the Quartermaster's 
guards burned all the fence rails in the vicinity, and some 
of the more indurated sat round the fagots and gamed 
with cards. 

Cold, taciturn, miserable, I thought of the quiet farm, 
house, the ruddy hearth-place, and the smoking supper. ' I 
wondered if the roguish eyes were not a little sad, and the 
trim feet a little restless, the chessmen somewhat stupid, and 
the good old house a trifle lonesome. Alas ! the intimacy 
so pleasantly commenced, was never to be renewed. With 
the thousand and one airy palaces that youth builds and 
time annihilates, my first romance of war towered to the 
stars in a day, and crumbled to earth in a night. 

At two o'clock in the morning w^e halted at Metropolitan 
Mills, on the Alexandria and Leesburg turnpike. A bridge 
had been destroyed below, and the creek was so swollen 
that neither artillery nor cavalry could ford it. The mead- 
ows were submerged and the rain still descended in torrents. 
The chilled troops made bonfires of some new panel fence, and 
stormed all the henroosts in the vicinity. Some pigs, that 
betrayed their whereabouts by inoportune whines and grunts, 
were speedily confiscated, slaughtered, and spitted. We 
erected our tarpaulin in a ploughed field, and Fogg laid 
some sharp rails upon the ground to make us a dry bed. 
Skyhiski fried a quantity of fresh beef, and boiled some 
coffee ; but while we ate heartily, theorizing as to the desti- 
nation of the corps, the poor Captain was terribly shaken 
by his ague. 

I woke in the morning with inflamed throat, rheumatic 
limbs, and every indication of chills and fever. Fogg whis- 
pered to me ^t breakfast that two men of Reynold's brigade 
had died during the night, from fatigue and exposure. He 
advised me to push forward to Washington and await the 
arrival of the division, as, unused to the hardships of a 
march, I might, after another day's experience, become 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 51 

dangerously ill. I set out at five o'clock, resolving to ford 
the creek, resume the turnpike, and reach Long Bridge at 
noon. Passing over some dozen fields in which my ho^se 
at every step sank to the fetlocks, I travelled along the 
brink of the stream till I finally reached a place that seemed 
to be shallow. Bracing myself firmly in the saddle, I urged 
my unwilling horse into the waters, and emerged half 
drowned on the other side. It happened, however, that I 
had crossed only a branch of the creek and gained an island. 
The main channel was yet to be attempted, and I saw that 
it was deep, broad, and violent. I followed the margin 
despairingly for a half-mile, when I came to a log footbridge, 
where I dismounted and swam my horse through the turbu- 
lent waters. 1 had now so far diverged from the turnpike that 
I was at a loss to recover it, but straying forlornly through the 
woods, struck a wagon track at last, and pursued it hopefully, 
until, to my confusion, it resolved itself to two tracks, that 
went in contrary directions. My horse preferred taking to 
the left, but after riding a full hour, I came to some felled 
trees, beyond which the traces did not go. Returning, weak 
and bewildered, I adopted the discarded route, which led 
me to a worm-fence at the edge of the woods. A house lay 
some distance off, but a wheat-field intervened, and I might 
bring the vengeance of the proprietor upon me by invading 
his domain. There was no choice, however ; so I removed 
the rails, and rode directly across the wheat to some negro 
quarters, a little removed from the mansion. They were 
deserted, all save one, v/here a black boy was singing some 
negro hymns in an uproarious manner. The words, as I 
made them out, were these : — 

" Stephen came a runnin', 
His Marster fur to see ; 
But Gabriel says he is not yar' ; 
He gone to Calvary I 

0, — 0, — Stephen, Stephen, 

Fur to see ; 
Stephen, Stephen, get along up Calvary!" 



52 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0X-C031BATAIsT. 

I learned from this person two mortifying facts, — that I 
was farther from Washington than at the beginning of my 
journey, and that the morrow was Sunday. War, alas I 
knows no Sabbaths, and the negro said, apologetically — 

'* I was a seyin' some ole hymns, young Mars'r. Sence 
dis ycr war we don't have no more meetings, and a body 
mos' forgits his pra'rs. Dere hain't been no church in all 
Fairfax, sah, fur nigh six months.'' 

Washington was nineteen miles distant, and another 
creek was to be forded before gaining the turnpike. The 
negro sauntered down the lane, and opened the gate forme. 
" You jes keep from de creek, take de mill road, and enqua' 
as ye get furder up," said he ; " it's mighty easy, sah, an' 
you can't miss de way." 

I missed the way at once, however, by confounding the 
mill road with the mill lane, and a shaggy dog that lay in a 
wagon shed pursued me about a mile. The road was full 
of mire ; no dwellings adjoined it, and nothing human was 
to be seen in any direction. I came to a crumbling negro 
cabin after two plodding hours, and, seeing a figure flit by 
the window, called aloud for information. Nobody replied, 
and when, dismounting, I looked into the den, it was, to my 
confusion, vacant. 

The soil, hereabout, was of a sterile red clay, spotted 
with scrub cedars. Country more bleak and desolate I have 
never known, and when, at noon, the rain ceased, a keen 
wind blew dismally across the barriers. I reached a turn- 
pike at length, and, turning, as I thought, toward Alexan- 
dria, goaded my horse into a canter. An hour's ride brought 
me to a wretched hamlet, whose designation I inquired of a 
cadaverous old woman — 

^'Drainesville," said she. 

" Then I am not upon the Alexandria turnpike ? " 

" No. You're sot for Leesburg. This is the George- 
town and Chain Bridge road." 

With a heavy heart, I retraced my steps, crossed Chain 



aOJPAIGNS OF A KOX-COBIBATANT. 53 

Bridge at five o'clock, and halted at Kirkwood's at seven. 
After dinner, falling in with the manager of the Washington 
Sunday morning Chronicle, I penned, at his request, a few 
lines relative to the movements of the Reserves ; and, learn- 
ing in the morning that they had arrived at Alexandria, set 
out on horseback for that city. 

Many hamlets and towns have been destroyed during the 
war. But, of all that in some form survive, Alexandria has 
most suffered. It has been in the uninterrupted possession 
of the Federals for twenty-two months, and has become es- 
sentially a military city. Its streets, its docks, its ware- 
houses, its dwellings, and its suburbs, have been absorbed 
to the thousand uses of war. 

I was challenged thrice on the Long Bridge, and five times 
on the road, before reaching the city. I rode under the 
shadows of five earthworks, and saw lines of white tents 
sweeping to the horizon. Gayly caparisoned officers' passed 
me, to spend their Sabbath in Washington, and trains laden 
with troops, ambulances, and batteries, sped along the line 
of railway, toward the rendezvous at Alexandria. A wag- 
oner, looking forlornly at his splintered wheels; a slovenly 
guard, watching some bales of hay ; a sombre negro, doz- 
ing upon his mule ; a slatternly Irish woman gossiping with 
a sergeant at her cottage door; a sutler in his "dear-born," 
running his keen eye down the limbs of my beast ; a spruce 
civilian riding for curiosity ; a gray-haired gentleman, in a 
threadbare suit, going to camp on foot, to say good by to 
his boy, — these were some of the personages that I re- 
marked, and each was a study, a sermon, and a story. The 
Potomac, below me, was dotted with steamers and shipping. 
The bluffs above were trodden bare, and a line of dismal 
marsh bordered some stagnant pools that blistered at their 
bases. At points along the river-shore, troops were em- 
barking on board steamers ; transports were taking in tons 
of baggage and subsistence. There was a schooner, laden 
to the water-line with locomotive engines and burden car- 



54 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATANT. 

riages ; there, a brig, shipping artillery horses by a steam 
derrick, that lifted them bodily from the shore and depos- 
ited them in the hold of the vessel. Steamers, from whose 
spacious saloons the tourist and the bride have watched the 
picturesque margin of the Hudson, were now black with 
clusters of rollicking volunteers, who climbed into the yards, 
and pitched headlong from the wheel-houses. The " grand 
movement,'' for which the people had waited so long, and 
which McClellan had promised so often, was at length to bo 
made. The Army of the Potomac was to be transferred to 
Fortress Monroe, at the foot of the Chesapeake, and to ad- 
vance by the peninsula of the James and the York, upon 
the city of Richmond. 

I rode through Washington Street, the seat of some an- 
cient residences, and found it lined with freshly arrived 
troops. The grave-slabs in a fine old churchyard wero 
strewn with weary cavalry-men, and they lay in some side 
yards, soundly sleeping. Some artillery-men chatted at 
doorsteps, with idle house-girls ; some courtesans flaunted 
in furs and ostrich feathers, through a group of coarse en- 
gineers ; some sergeants of artillery, in red trimmings, and 
caps gilded with cannon, were reining their horses to leer 
at some ladies, who were taking the air in their gardens ; and 
at a wide place in the street, a Provost-Major was manoeu- 
vring some companies, to the sound of the drum and fife. 
There was much drunkenness, among both soldiers and civ- 
ilians ; and the people of Alexandria were, in many cases, 
crushed and demoralized by reason of their troubles. One 
man of this sort led me to a sawmill, now run by Govern- 
ment, and pointed to the implements. 

'' I bought 'em and earned 'em," he said. *' My labor 
and enterprise set 'em there ; and while my mill and ma- 
chinery are ruined to fill the pockets o' Federal sharpers, I 
go drunk, ragged, and poor about the streets o' my native 
town. My daughter starves in Richmond ; God knows I 
can't get to her. I wish to h — II was dead." 



CAMPAIGNS O^ A N0X-C03IBATAMT. 55 

Further inquiry developed the facts that my acquaint- 
ance had been a thriving builder, who had dotted all North- 
eastern Virginia with evidences of his handicraft. At the 
commencement of the war, he took certain contracts from 
the Confederate government, for the construction of bar- 
racks at Kichmond and Manassas Junction ; returning 
inopportunely to Alexandria, he was arrested, and kept 
some time in Capitol-Hill prison ; he had not taken the oath 
of allegiance, consequently, he could obtain no recompense 
for the loss of his mill property. Domestic misfortunes, 
happening at the same time, so embittered his days that he 
resorted to dissipation. Alexandria is filled with like ruined 
people ; they walk as strangers through their ancient 
streets, and their property is no longer theirs to possess, 
but has passed into the hands of the dominant nalionalists. 
My informant pointed out the residences of many leading 
citizens : some were now hospitals, others armories and arse- 
nals ; others offices for inspectors, superintendents, and civil 
officials. The few people that remained upon their properties, 
obtained partial immunity, by courting the acquaintance of 
Federal officers, and, in many cases, extending the hospitali- 
ties of their homes to the invaders. I do not know that any 
Federal functionary was accused of tyranny, or wantonness, 
but these things ensued, as the na-tural results of civil war ; 
and one's sympathies were everywhere enlisted for the poor, 
the exiled, and the bereaved. 

My dinner at the City Hotel was scant and badly pre- 
pared. I gave a negro lad who waited upon me a few 
cents, but a burly negro carver, who seemed to be his 
father, boxed the boy's ears and put the coppers into his 
pocket. The proprietor of the place had voluntarily taken 
the oath of allegiance, and had made more money since the 
date of Federal occupation than during his whole life pre- 
viously. He said to me, curtly, that if by any chance the 
Confederates should reoccupy Alexandria, he could very 
well afford to relinquish his property. He employed a smart 



5G CAMPAIGNS OF A XOX-CO:\inATANT. 

barkeeper, who led guests by a retired way to tUe drinkiag- 
rooins. Here, with the gas burning at a taper point, cob- 
blers, cocktails, and juleps were mixed stealthily and swal- 
lowed in the darkness. The bar was like a mint to the 
proprietor; he only feared discovery and prohibition. It 
would not accord with the chaste pages of this narrative to 
tell how some of the noblest residences in Alexandria had 
been desecrated to licentious purposes ; nor how, by night, 
the parlors of cosey homes flamed with riot and orgie. I 
stayed but a little time, having written an indiscreet para- 
graph in the Washington Chronicle, for which I was pursued 
by the War Department, and the management of my paper, 
lacking heart, I went home in a pet. 



CHAPTER VI. 



DOWN THE CHESAPEAKE. 



Disappointed in the unlucky termination of my adventures 
afield, I now looked ambitiously toward New York. As 
London stands to the provinces, so stands the empire city 
to America. Its journals circulate by hundreds of thou- 
sands ; its means are onl}^ rivalled by its enterprise ; it is the 
end of every young American's aspiration, and the New 
Bohemia for the restless, the brilliant, and the industrious. 
It seemed a great way off when I first beheld it, but I did 
not tlierefore despair. Small matters of news that I gath- 
ered in my modest city, obtained space in the columns of 

the great metropolitan journal, the -~~^, . After a time 

I was delegated to travel in search of special incidents, and 
finally, when the noted Tennessee Unionist, ''Parson'' 
Brownlow, journeyed eastward, I joined his suite, and 
accompanied him to New York. The dream of many months 

now came to be realized. A correspondent on the 's 

staff had been derelict, and I was appointed to his division. 
His horse, saddle, field-glasses, blankets, and pistols were 
to be transferred, and I* was to proceed without delay to 
Fortress Monroe, to keep with the advancing columns of 
McGlellan. 

At six in the morning I embarked; at eleven T was 
whirled through my own city, without a glimpse of my 
friends ; at three o'clock I dismounted at Baltimore, and at 
five was gliding down the Patapsco, under the shadows of 

(57) 



58 C.OIPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

Fort Federal Hill, and the white walls of Fort McHenr3\ 
The latter defence is renowned for its gallant resistance to 
a British fleet in 1813, and the American national anthem, 
" The Star-Spangled Banner,'' was written to commemorate 
that bombardment. Fort Carroll, a massive structure of 
hewn stone, with arched bomb-proof and three tiers of 
mounted ordnance, its smooth walls washed by the waves, 
and its unfinished floors still ringing with the trowel and 
the adze, — lies some miles below, at a narrow passage in 
the stream. Below, the shores diverge, and at dusk we 
v/ere fairly in the Chesapeake, under steam and sail, speed- 
ing due southward. 

The Adelaide Vv^as one of a series of boats making daily 
trips between Baltimore and Old Point. Fourteen hours 
were required to accomplish the passage, and we were 
not to arrive till seven o'clock next morning. I was so for- 
tunate as to obtain a state-room, but many passengers were 
obliged to sleep upon sofas or the cabin floor. These boats 
monopolized the civil traffic between the North and the 
army, although they were reputed to be owned and man- 
aged by Secessionists. None were allowed to embark unless 
provided with Federal passes ; but there were, nevertheless, 
three or four hundred people on board. About one fourth 
of these were officers and soldiers ; one half sutlers, traders, 
contractors, newsmen, and idle civilians, anxious to witness 
a battle, or stroll over the fields of Big Bethel, Lee's Mills, 
Yorktown, Gloucester, Williamsburg, or West Point; the 
rest were females on missions of mercy, on visits to sons, 
brothers, and husbands, and on the way to their homes at 
Norfolk, Suffolk, or Hampton. Some of these were citizens 
of Richmond, who believed that the Federals would occupy 
the city in a few days, and enable them to resume their pro- 
fessions and homes. The lower decks were occupied by 
negroes. The boat was heavily freighted, and among the 
parcels that littered the hold and steerage, I noticed scores 
of box coffins for the removal of corpses from the field to 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-00MBATA?rr. 59 

the North. There were quantities of spirits, consigned 
mainly to Quartermasters, but evidently the property of 
certain Shylocks, who watched the barrels greedily. An 
embalmer was also on board, with his ghostly implements, 
lie was a sallow man, shabbily attired, and appeared to 
look at all the passengers as so many subjects for the devel- 
opment of his art."^ He was called '' Doctor" by his admir- 
ers, and conversed in the blandest manner of the triumphs 
of his system. 

" There are certain pretenders,'^ he said, " who are at this 
moment imposing upon the Government. I regret that it is 
necessary to repeat it, but the fact exists that tho Govern- 
ment is the prey of harpies. And in the art of which I am an 
humble disciple, — that of injecting, commonly called em- 
balming, — the frauds are most deplorable. There was 
Major Montague, — a splendid subject, I assure you, — a 
subject that any Professor would have beautifully preserved, 
— a subject that one esteems it a favor to obtain, — a subject 
that I in particular would have been proud to receive ! But 
what were the circumstances ? I do assure you that a 
person named Wigwart, — who I have since ascertained to 
be a veterinary butcher ; in plain language, a doctor of 
horses and asses, — imposed upon the relatives of the 
deceased, obtained the body, and absolutely ruined it ! — 
absolutely mangled it ! I may say, shamefully disfigured 
it I He was a man, sir, six feet two, — about your height, 
I think ! (to a bj^stander.) About your weight, also ! Indeed 
quite like you ! And allow me to say that, if you should fall 
into my hands, I would leave your friends no cause for 
oiTence I (Here the bystander trembled perceptibly, and I 
thought that the doctor was about to take his life.) Well ! 
/should have operated thus : — '^ 

Then followed a description of the process, narrated with 
horrible circumstantiality. j^ fluid holding in solution 
pounded glass and certain chemicals, was, by the doctor's 
" system," injected into the bloodvessels, and%ie subject 



60 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

at the same time bled at the neck. The body thus became 
hard and stony, and would retain its form for years. He 
had, by his account, experimented for a lifetime, and said 
that little " Willie,'' the son of President Lincoln, had been 
so preserved that his fond parents must have enjoyed his 
decease. 

It seemed to me that the late lamented practitioners, Messrs. 
Burke and Hare, were likely to fade into insignificance, 
beside this new light of science. 

I went upon deck for some moments, and marked the 
beating of the waves ; the glitter of sea-lights pulsing on 
the ripples ; the sweep of belated gulls through the creak- 
ing rigging ; the dark hull of a passing vessel with a grin- 
ning topmast lantern ; the vigilant pilot, whose eyes glared 
like a fiend's upon the waste of blackness ; the foam that 
the panting screw threw against the cabin windows ; the flap 
of fishes caught in the threads of moonlight ; the depths over 
which one bent, peering half wistfully, half abstractedly, 
almost crazily, till he longed to drop into their coolness, 
and let the volumes of billow roll musically above him. 

A v/oman approached me, as I stood against the great 
anchor, thus absorbed. She had a pale, thin face, and was 
Bcantily clothed, and spoke with a distrustful, timorous 
voice : — 

'' You don't know the name of the surgeon-general, do 
you sir! " 

" At Washington, ma'am ? " 

" No, sir; at Old Point." 

I offered to inquire of the Captain : but she stopped me, 
agitatedly. '' It's of no consequence," she said, — " that 
is, it is of greut consequence to me ; but perhaps it would 
be best to wait." I answered, as obligingly as I could, that 
any service on m.y part would be cheerfully rendered. 

" The fact is, sir," she said, after a pause, '' I am going to 
Williamsburg, to — find — the — the body — of my — boy." 

Here bit speech was broken, and she put a thin, white 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 61 

hand tremulously to her eyes. I thought that any person 
in the Federal service would willingly assist her, and said 
so. 

" He was not a Federal soldier, sir. He was a Confed- 
erate ! '' 

This considerably altered the chances of success, and I 
was obliged to undeceive her somewhat. "I am sure it 
was not my fault,'' she continued, *' that he joined the 
Eebellion. You don't think they'll refuse to let me take his 
bones to Baltimore, do you, sir ? He was my oldest boy, 
and his brother, my second son, wa« killed at BalFs Bluff: 
He was in the Federal service. I hardly think they will 
refuse me the poor favor of laying them in the same grave." 

I spoke of the difficulty of recognition, of the remoteness 
of the field, and of the expense attending the recovery of 
any remains, particularly those of the enemy, that, left 
hastily behind in retreat, were commonly buried in trenches 
without headboard or record. She said, sadly, that she had 
very little money, and that she could barely afford the jour- 
ney to the Fortress and return. But she esteemed her 
means well invested if her object could be attained. 

" They were both brave boys, sir ; but I could never get 
them to agree politically. William was a Northerner by 
education, and took up with the New England views, and 
James was in business at Richmond when the war com- 
menced. So he joined the Southern army. It's a sad thing 
to know that one's children died enemies, isn't it ? And 
what troubles me more than all, sir, is that James was at 
Ball's Bluff where his brother fell. It makes me shudder 
to think, sometimes, that Ms might have been the ball that 
killed him." 

The tremor of the poor creature here was painful to 
behold. I spoke soothingly and encouragingly, but with a 
presentiment that she must be disappointed. While I was 
speaking the supper-bell rang, and I proposed to get her a 
seat at the table. 



62 CAjiPAlGXS OF A JsON-COMBATAXT. 

« 

" No, thank you/' she replied, " I shall take no meals on 
the vessel ; I must travel economically, and have prepared 
some lunch that will serve me. Good b}^, sir ! '' 

Poor mothers looking for dead sons ! God help them ! I 
have met them often since ; but the figure of that pale, frail 
creature flitting about the open deck, — alone, hungry, very 
poor, — troubles me still, as I write. I found, afterward, 
that she had denied herself a state-room, and intended to 
sleep in a saloon chair. I persuaded her to accept my berth, 
but a German, who occupied the same apartment, was unwill- 
ing to relinquish his bed, and I had the power only to give 
her my pillow. 

Supper was spread in the forccabin, and at the signal to 
assemble the men rushed to the tables like as many beasts of 
prey. A captain opposite me bolted a whole mackerel in a 
twinkling, and spread the half-pound of butter that was to 
serve the entire vicinity upon a single slice of bread. A 
sutler beside me reached his fork across my neck, and 
plucked a young chicken bodily, which he ate, to the great 
disgust of some others who were eyeing it. The waiter ad- 
vanced with some steak, but before he reached the table, a 
couple of Zouaves dragged it from the tray, and laughed 
brutally at their success. The motion of the vessel caused 
a general unsteadiness, and it was absolutely dangerous to 
move one's coifee to his lips. The inveterate hate with 
which corporations are regarded in America was here evi- 
denced by a general desire to empty the ship's larder. 

''Eat all you can," said a soldier, ferociously, — "fare's 
amazin' high. Must make it out in grub." 

''I always gorges," said another, "on a railroad or a 
steamboat. Cause why ? You must eat out your passage, 
you know ! " 

Among the passengers were a young officer and his bride. 
They had been married only a few days, and she had ob- 
tained permission to accompany him to Old Point. Very 
pretty, she seemed, in her travelling hat and flowing robes ; 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-C O:\IB AT ANT. bd 

and he wore a handsome new uniform with prodigious 
shonlder-bars. There was a piano in the saloon, where 
another j^oung lady of the party performed during the 
evening, and the bride and groom accompanied her with a 
song. It was the popular Federal parody of " Gay and 
Happy : " 

*' Then let the South fling aloft what it will, — 
We are for the Union still ! 

For the Union ! For the Union ! 
We are for the Union still ! " 

The bride and groom sang alternate stanzas, and the con- 
course of soldiers, civilians, and females swelled the chorus. 
The reserve being thus broken, the young officer sang the 
" Star-Spangled Banner,'' and the refrain must have called 
up the mermaids. Dancing ensued, and a soldier volunteered 
a hornpipe. A young man with an astonishing compass of 
lungs repeated something from Shakespeare, and the night 
passed by gleefully and reputably. One could hardly real- 
ize, in the cheerful eyes and active figures of the dance, the 
sad uncertainties of the time. Youth trips lightest, some- 
how, on the brink of the grave. 

The hilarities of the evening so influenced the German 
quartered with me, that he sang snatches of foreign ballads 
during most of the night, and obliged me, at last, to call 
the steward and insist upon his good behavior. 

In the gray of the morning I ventured on deck, and, fol- 
lowing the silvery line of beach, made out the shipping at 
anchor in Hampton Roads. The 3Iinnesota flag-ship lay 
across the horizon, and after a time I remarked the low 
walls and black derricks of the Rip Raps. The white tents 
at Hampton were then revealed, and finally I distinguished 
Fortress Monroe, the key of the Chesapeake, bristling with 
guns, and floating the Federal flag. As we rounded to off 
the quay, I studied with intense interest the scene of so 
many historic events. Sewall's Point lay to the south, a 



64 CAMPAIGNS OF A X0X-C03IBATANT. 

stretch of woody beach, around whose western tip the 
dreaded Merrimac had so often moved slowly to the en- 
counter. The spars of the Congress and the Cumberland 
still floated along the strand, but, like them, the invulner- 
able monster had become the prey of the waves. The guns 
of the Rip Raps and the terrible broadsides of the Federal 
gunboats, had swept the Confederates from Sewall's Point, 
— their flag and battery were gone, — and farther seaward, 
at Willoughby Spit, some figures upon the beach marked 
the route of the victorious Federals to the city of Norfolk. 

The mouth of the James and the York were visible from 
the deck, and long lines of shipping stretched from each 
to the Fortress. The quay itself was like the pool in the 
Thames, a mass of spars, smoke-stacks, ensigns and swelling 
hills. The low deck and quaint cupola of the famous Moni- 
tor appeared close into shore, and near at hand rose the 
thick body of the Galena. Long boats aud flat boats went 
hither and thither across the blue waves : the grim ports of 
the men of war were open and the guns frowned darkly 
from their coverts ; the seamen were gathering for muster 
on the flagship, and drums beat from the barracks on shore ; 
the Lincoln gun, a fearful piece of ordnance, rose like the 
« Sphynx from the Fortress sands, and the sodded parapet, 
the winding stone walls, the tops of the brick quarters 
within the Fort, were some of the features of a strangely 
animated scene, that has yet to be perpetuated upon can- 
vas, and made historic. 

At eight o'clock the passengers were allowed to land, and 
a provost guard marched them to the Hygeia House, — of 
old a watering-place hotel, — where, by groups, they were 
ushered into a small room, and the oath of allegiance admin- 
istered to them. The young officer who officiated, repeated 
the words of the oath, with a broad grin upon his face, and 
the passengers were required to assent by word and by 
gesture. Among those who took the oath in this way, was 
a very old sailor, who had been in the Federal service for 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. ()5 

the better part of his life, and whose five sons were now in 
the army. He called " Amen " very loudly and fervently, 
and there was some perceptible disposition on the part of 
other ardent patriots, to celebrate the occasion with three 
cheers. The quartermaster, stationed at the Fortress gave 
me a pass to go by steamer up the York to White House, 
and as there were three hours to elapse before departure, 
I strolled about the place with our agent. In times of 
peace, Old Point was simply a stone fortification, and one 
of the strongest of its kind in the world. Many years and 
many millions of dollars were required to build it, but it was, 
in general, feebly garrisoned, and was, altogether, a stupid, 
tedious locality, except in the bathing months, when the 
beauty and fashion of Virginia resorted to its hotel. A few 
cottages had grown up around it, tenanted only in "the 
season ; '^ and a little way oif, on the mainland, stood the 
pretty village of Hampton. 

By a strange oversight, the South failed to seize Fortress 
Monroe at the beginning of the Rebellion ; the Federals 
soon made it the basis for their armies and a leading naval 
station. The battle of Big Bethel was one of the first oc- 
currences in the vicinity. Then the dwellings of Hampton 
were burned and its people exiled. In rapid succession fol- 
lowed the naval battles in the Roads, the siege and surren- 
der of Yorktown, the flight of the Confederates up the 
Peninsula to Richmond, and finally the battles of Williams- 
burg*, and West Point, and the capture of Norfolk. These 
things had already transpired ; it was now the month of 
May ; and the victorious army, following up its vantages, 
had pursued the fugitives by land and water to ''White 
House," at the head of navigation on the Pamunkey river. 
Thither it was my lot to go, and witness the turning-point 
of their fortunes, and their subsequent calamity and repulse. 
'^ I found Old Point a weary place of resort, even in the 
busy era of civil war. The bar at the Hygeia House was 



66 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

beset with thirsty and idle people, who swore instinctively, 
and drank raw spirits passionately^ The quantity of shell, 
ball, ordnance, camp equipage, and war munitions of every 
description piled around the fort, was marvellously great. 
It seemed to me that Xerxes, the first Napoleon, or the 
greediest of conquerors, ancient or modern, would have beheld 
with amazement the gigantic preparations at command of 
the Federal Government. Energy and enterprise displayed 
their implements of death on every hand. One was startled 
at the prodigal outlay of means, and the reckless summon- 
ing of men. I looked at the starred and striped ensign 
that flaunted above the Fort, and thought of Madame 
Koland's appeal to the statue by the guillotine, 
r The settlers were numbered by regiments here. Their 
places of business were mainly structures or " shanties " of 
rough plank, and most of them were the owners of sloops, 
or schooners, for the transportation of freight from New 
York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, to their depots at Old 
Point. Some possessed a dozen wagons, that plied regu- 
larly between these stores and camps. The traffic was not 
confined to men ; for women and children kept pace with 
the army, trading in every possible article of necessity or 
luxury. For these — disciples of the dime and the dollar — 
war had no terrors. They took their muck-rakes, like the 
man in Bunyan, and gathered the almighty coppers, from 
the pestilential camp and the reeking battle-field. ~7 



CHAPTEE YII 



ON TO RICHMOND, 



YoRKTOWN lies twenty-one miles northwestward from Old 
Point, and thither I turned my face at noon, resolving* to 
delay my journey to " White Ho use, '^ till next day morn- 
ing. Crossing an estuary of the bay upon a narrow cause- 
way, I passed Hampton, — half burned, half desolate, — and 
at three o'clock came to "Big Bethel,'^ the scene of the 
battle of June 11, 1861. A small earthwork marks the 
site of Magruder's field-pieces, and hard by the slain 
were buried. The spot was noteworthy to me, since Lieu- 
tenant Greble, a fellow alumnus, had perished here, and 
likewise, Theodore Winthrop, the gifted author of '' Cecil 
Dreeme'^ and "John Brent." The latter did not live to 
know his exaltation. That morning never came whereon 
he "woke, and found himself famous." 

The road ran parallel with the deserted defences of the 
Confederates for some distance. The country was flat and 
full of swamps, but marked at intervals by relics of camps. 
The farm-houses were untenanted, the fences laid flat or 
destroyed, the fields strewn with discarded clothing", arms, 
a.nd utensils. By and by, we entered the outer line of Fed- 
eral parallels, and wound among lunettes, cremailleres, re- 
doubts, and rifle-pits. Marks of shell and ball were fre- 
quent, in furrows and holes, where the clay had been up- 
heaved. Every foot of ground, for fifteen miles hencefor- 
vrard, had been touched by the shovel and the pick. My 

(G7) 



68 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

companion suggested that as much digging, concentred 
upon one point, would have taken the Federals to China. 
The sappers and miners had made their stealthy trenches, 
rod by rod, each morning appearing closer to their adversa- 
ries, and finally, completed their work, at less than a hun- 
dred yards from the Confederate defences. Three minutes 
would have sufiSced from the final position, to hurl columns 
upon the opposing outworks, and sweep them with the bay- 
onet. Ten days only had elapsed since the evacuation (May 
4), and the siege guns still remained in some of the bat- 
teries. McClellan worshipped great ordnance, and some 
of his columbiads, that were mounted in the water battery, 
yawned cavernously through their embrasures, and might 
have furnished sleeping accommodations to the gunners. 
A few mortars stood in position by the river side, and there 
were Parrott, Griffin, and Dahlgren pieces in the shore bat- 
teries. 

.However numerous and powerful were the Federal fortifi- 
cations, they bore no comparison, in either respect, to those 
relinquished by the revolutionists. Miniature mountain 
ranges they seemed, deeply ditched, and revetted with sods, 
fascines, hurdles, gabions or sand bags. Along the York 
riverside there were water batteries of surpassing beauty, that 
seemed, at a little distance, successions of gentle terraces. 
Their pieces were likewise of enormous calibre, and their 
number almost incredible. The advanced line of fortifica- 
tions, sketched from the mouth of Warwick creek, on the 
South, to a point fifteen miles distant on the York : one hun- 
dred and forty guns were planted along this chain of de- 
fences ; but there were two other concentric lines, mounting, 
each, one hundred and twenty, and two hundred and forty 
guns. The remote series consisted of six forts of massive 
size and height, fronted by swamps and flooded meadows, 
with frequent creeks and ravines interposing ; sharp f raise 
and ahattis planted against scarp and slope, pointed cruelly 
eastward. There were two water batteries, of six and four 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 69 

thirty-two columbiads respectively, and the town itself, 
which stands upon a red clay blufi", was encircled by a series 
of immense rifled and smooth-bore pieces, including a pow- 
erful pivot-gun, that one of McClellan's shells struck during 
the first day's bombardment, and split it into fragments. 
At Gloucester Point, across the York river, the great guns 
of the Merrimac were planted, it is said, and a fleet of fire- 
rafts and torpedo-ships were moored in the stream. By all 
accounts, there could have been no less than five hundred 
guns behind the Confederate entrenchments, the greater 
portion, of course, field-pieces, and, as the defending army 
was composed of one hundred thousand men, Ave must add 
that number of small arms to the list of ordnance. If we 
compute the Federals at so high a figure, — and they could 
scarcely have had less than a hundred thousand men afield, 
— we must increase the enormous amount of their field, 
siege, and small ordnance, by the naval guns of the fleet, 
that stood anchored in the bay. It is probable that a thou- 
sand cannon and two hundred thousand muskets were as- 
sembled in and around Yorktown during this memorable 
siege. The mind shudders to see the terrible deductions of 
these statistics. The monster, who wished that the world 
had but one neck, that he might sever it, would have gloated 
at such realization ! How many days or hours would have 
here sufficed to annihilate all the races of men ? Happily, 
the world was spared the spectacle of these deadly mouths 
at once aflame. Beautiful but awful must have been the 
scene, and the earth must have staggered with the shock. 
One might almost have imagined that man, in his ambition, 
had shut his God in heaven, and besieged him there. 

"While the fortifications defending it amazed me, the vil- 
lage of Yorktown disappointed me. I marvelled that so 
paltry a settlement should have been twice made historic. 
Here, in the year 1783, Lord Cornwallis surrendered his 
starving command to the American colonists and their French 
allies. But the entrenchments of that earlier day had been 



70 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATAXT. 

almost obliterated by these recent labors. The field, where 
the Earl delivered up his sword, was trodden bare, and dot- 
ted with ditches and ramparts ; while a small monument, 
that marked the event, had been hacked to fragments by the 
Southerners, and carried away piecemeal. Yet, strange to 
say, relics of the first bombardment had just been discov- 
ered, and, 'among them, a gold-hilted sword. 

I visited, in the evening, the late quarters of General 
Hill, a small white house with green shutters, and also the 
famous "Nelson House," a roomy mansion where, of old, 
Cornwallis slept, and where, a few days past, Jefierson 
Davis and General Lee had held with Magruder, and his as- 
sociates, a council of war. It had been also used for hospi- 
tal purposes, but some negroes were now the only occu- 
pants. 

The Confederates left behind them seventy spiked and 
shattered cannon, some powder, and a few splintered 
wagons ; but in all material respects, their evacuation was 
thorough and creditable. Some deserters took the first 
tidings of the retreat to the astonished Federals, and they 
raised the national flag within the fortifications, in the gray 
of the morning of the 4th of May. Many negroes also es- 
caped the vigilance of their taskmasters, and remained to 
welcome the victors. The fine works of Yorktown are 
monuments to negro labor, for they were the hewers and the 
diggers. Every slave-owner in, Eastern Virginia was obliged 
to send one half of his male servants between the ages of 
sixteen and fifty to the Confederate camps, and they were 
organized into gangs and set to work. ^ In some cases they 
were put to military service and made excellent sharp- 
shooters. The last gun discharged from the town was said 
to have been fired by a negro. \ 

I slept on board a barge at the wharf that evening, and my 
dreams ran upon a thousand tnemes. To every American this 
was hallowed ground. It had been celebrated by the pencil 
of Trumbull, the pen of Franklin, and the eloquence of Jef- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-CO.MBATANT. 71 

ferson." Scarce eighty years had elapsed smce those great 
minds established a fraternal government ; but the site of 
their crowning glory was now the scene of their children's 
shame. Discord had stolen upon their councils and blood 
had profaned their shrine. 

I visited next day a bomb-proof postern, or subterranean 
passage, connecting the citadel vv^ith the outworks, and 
loitered about the fortifications till noon, when I took pas- 
sage on the mail steamer, which left the Fortress at eleven 
o'clock, and reached White House at dusk the same evening. 
The whole river as I ascended was filled with merchant and 
naval craft. They made a continuous line from Old Point to 
the mouth of York River, and the masts and spars environ- 
ing Yorktown and Gloucester, reminded one of a scene on 
the Mersey or the Clyde. At West Point, there was an 
array of shipping scarcely less formidable, and the windings 
of the interminably crooked Pamunkey were marked for 
leagues by sails, smoke-stacks, and masts. The landings and 
wharves v/ere besieged by flat-boats and sloops, and Zouaves 
were hoisting forage and commissary stores up the red 
bluffs at every turn of our vessel. 

The Pamunkey was a beautiful stream, densely wooded, 
and occasional vistas opened up along its borders of wheat- 
fields and meadows, Avith Virginia farm-houses and negro 
quarters on the hilltops. Some of the houses on the river 
banks appeared to be tenanted b}^ white people, but the ma- 
jority had a haunted, desolate appearance, the only signs 
of life being strolling soldiers, who thrust their legs through 
the second story windows, or contemplated the river from 
the chimney-tops, and groups of negroes who sunned them- 
selves on the piazza, or rushed to the margin to gaze and 
grin at the passing steamers. There were occasional resi- 
dences not unworthy of old manorial and baronial times, 
and these were attended at a little distance by negro quar- 
ters of logs, arranged in rows, and provided with mud 
chimneys built against their gables. Few of the Northern 
navigable rivers were so picturesque and varied. 



72 CAMPAIGNS OF A KOX-COMBATANT. 

We passed two Confederate gunboats, that had been half 
completed, and burned on the stocks. Their charred elbows 
and ribs, stared out, like the remains of some extinct mon- 
sters ; a little delay might have found each of them armed 
and manned, and carrying havoc upon the rivers and the 
seas. West Point was simply a tongue, or spit of land, 
dividing the Mattapony.from the Pamunkey river at their 
junction ; a few houses were built upon the shallow, and 
some wharves, half demolished, marked the terminus of the 
York and Richmond railroad. A paltry water-battery was 
the sole defence. Below Cumberland (a collection of huts 
and a wharf), a number of schooners had been sunk across 
the river, and, with the aid of an island in the middle, these 
constituted a rather rigid blockade. The steamboat passed 
through, steering carefully, but some sailing vessels that 
followed required to be towed between the narrow aper- 
tures. The tops only of the sunken masts could be dis- 
cerned above the surface, and much time and labor must 
have been required to place the boats in line and sink 
them. Vessels were counted by scores above and below 
this blockade, and at Cumberland the masts were like a 
forest ; clusters of pontoons were here anchored in the river, 
and a short distance below we found three of the light- 
draught Federal gunboats moored in the stream. It was 
growing dark as we rounded to at *' White House ; " the 
camp fires of the grand army lit up the sky, and edged the 
tree-boughs on the margin with ribands of silver. Some 
drums beat in the distance ; sentries paced the strand ; the 
hum of men, and the lowing of commissary cattle, were 
borne towards us confusedly ; soldiers were bathing in the 
river ; team-horses were drinking at the brink ; a throng' of 
motley people were crowding about the landing to receive 
the papers and mails. I had at last arrived at the seat of 
war, and my ambition to chronicle battles and bloodshed 
was about to be gratified. 

At first, I was troubled to make my way ; the tents had 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-CO?.lDATANT. 73 

just been pitched ; none knew the location of divisions 
other than their own, and it was now so dark that I did 
not care to venture far. After a vain attempt to find some 
iiat-boats where there were lodgings and meals to be had, I 
struck out for general head-quarters, and, undergoing re- 
peated snubbings from pert members of staff, fell in at 
length, with a very tall, spare, and angular young officer, 
who spoke broken English, and who heard my inquiries, 
courteously ; he stepped into General Marcy's tent, but 
the Chief of Staff did not know the direction of Smith's 
division ; he then repaired to Gen. Van Vleet, the chief 
Quartermaster, but with ill success. A party of officers 
were smoking under a " fly/' and some of these called to 
him, thus — 

" Captain I Duke 1 De Chartres I What do you wish ? 

It was, then, the Orleans Prince who had befriended me, 
and I had the good fortune to hear that the division, of which 
I was in search, lay a half mile up the river. I never spoke 
to the Bourbon afterward, but saw him often ; and that he 
was as chivalrous as he was kind, all testimony proved. 

A private escorted me to a Captain Mott's tent, and this 
officer introduced me to General Hancock. I was at once 
invited to mess with the General's staff, and in the course 
of an hour felt perfectly at home. Hancock was one of the 
handsomest officers in the army ; he had served in the 
Mexican war, and was subsequently a Captain in the Quar- 
termaster's department. But the Rebellion placed stars in 
many shoulder-bars, and few were more worthily designated 
than this young Pennsylvanian. His first laurels were 
gained at Williamsburg ; but the story of a celebrated 
charge that won him the day's applause, and McClellan's 
encomium of the " Superb Hancock," was altogether ficti- 
tious. The musket, not the bayonet, gave him the victorj^ 
I may doubt, in this place, that any extensive bayonet 
charge has been known during the war. Some have gone 
so far as to deny that the bayonet has ever been used at all. 
7 



74 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

Hancock's regiments were the 5th Wisconsin, 49th Penn- 
sylvanian, 43d New York, and 6th Maine. They repre- 
sented widely different characteristics, and I esteemed my- 
self fortunate to obtain a position where I could so eligibly 
study men, habits, and warfare. During the evening 1 fell 
in with the Colonel of each of these regiments, and from the 
conversation that ensued, I gleaned a fair idea of them 
all. 

The Wisconsin regiment was from a new and ambitious 
State of the Northwest. The men were rough-mannered, 
great-hearted farmers, wood-choppers, and tradesmen. They 
had all the impulsiveness of the Yankee, with less selfish- 
ness, and quite as much bravery. The Colonel was named 
Cobb, and he had held some leading offices in Wisconsin. 
A part of his life had been adventurously spent, and lie had 
participated in the Mexican war. He was an ardent 
Republican in politics, and had been Speaker of a branch of 
the State Legislature. He was an attorney in a small 
county town when the war commenced, and his name had 
been broached for the Governorship. In person he was 
small, lithe, and capable of enduring great fatigue. His 
' hair was a little gray, and he had no beard. He did not 
respect appearances, and his sword, as I saw, w^as antique 
and quite different in shape from the regulation weapon. 
He had penetrating gray eyes, and his manners were generally 
reserved. One had not to regard him twice to see that he 
was both cautious and resolute. He was too ambitious to 
be frank, and too passionate' not to be brave. In the for- 
mula of learning he was not always correct ; but few were 
of quicker perception or more practical and philosophic. 
He might not, in an emergency, be nicely scrupulous as to 
means, but he never wavered in respect to objects. His 
will was the written law to his regiment, and I believed his 
executive abilities superior to those of any officer in the 
brigade, not excepting the General's. 

The New York regiment was commanded by a young 
officer named Vinton. He was not more than tliirty-five 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 75 

years of age, and was a graduate of the United States 
Military Academy. Passionately devoted to engineering, 
he withdrew from the army, and passed five years in Paris, 
at the study of his art. Returning homeward by way of 
the West Indies, he visited Honduras, and projected a fili- 
bustering expedition to its shores from the States. While 
perfecting the design, the Rebellion commenced, and his 
old patron, General Scott, secured him the colonelcy of a 
volunteer regiment. He still cherished his scheme of " Col- 
onization,'' and half of his men were promised to accompany 
him. Personally, Colonel Vinton was straight, dark, and 
handsome. He was courteous, affable, and brave, — but 
wedded to his peculiar views, and, as I thought, a thorough 
'' Young American." 

The Maine regiment was fathered by Colonel Burnham, 
a staunch old yeoman and soldier, who has since been made 
a General. His probity and good-nature were adjuncts of 
his valor, and his men were of the better class of New Eng- 
landers. The fourth regiment fell into the hands of a lawyer 
from Lewistown, Pennsylvania. He had been also in the 
Mexican war, and was remarkable mainly for strictness with 
regard to the sanitary regulations of his camps. He had 
wells dug at every stoppage, and his tents were generally 
fenced and canopied with cedar arbors. General Hancock's 
staff was composed of a number of young men, most of 
whom had been called from civil life. His brigade consti- 
tuted one of three commanded by General Smith. Four 
batteries were annexed to the division so formed ; the entire 
number of muskets was perhaps eight thousand. The Chief 
of Artillery was a Captain Ay res, whose battery saved the 
three months' army at Bull Run. It so happened that he 
came into the General's during the evening, and recited the 
particulars of a gunboat excursion, thirty miles up the 
Pamunkey, wherein he had landed his men, and burned a 
quantity of grain, some warehouses, and shipping. I pen- 
cilled the facts at once, made up my letter, and mailed it 
early in the morning* 



CHAPTER Vm. 

RUSTICS IN REBELLION. 

'- At White House, I met some of the mixed Indians and 
negroes from Indiantown Island, which lies among the osiers 
in the stream. One of these ferried me over, and the people 
received me obsequiously, touching their straw hats, and 
saying, " Sar, at your service ! " They were all anxious to 
hear something of the war, and asked, solicitously, if they 
were to be protected. Some of them had been to Eichmond 
the previous day, and gave me some unimportant items 
happening in the city. I found that they had Richmond 
papers of that date, and purchased them for a few cents. 
They knew little or nothing of their own history, and had 
preserved no traditions of their tribe. There was, however, 
I understood, a very old woman extant, named "Mag," of 
great repute at medicines, pow-wows, and divination. I 
expressed a desire to speak with her, and was conducted to 
a log-house, more ricketty and ruined than any of the 
others. About fifty half-breeds followed me in respectful 
curiosity, and they formed a semicircle around the cabin. 
The old woman sat in the threshold, barefooted, and smoking 
a stump of clay pipe. 

"Yaw's one o' dem Nawden soldiers. Aunt Mag ! '' said 
my conductor. " He wants to talk wid ye." 

" Sot down, honey," said the old woman, producing a 
wooden stool ; " is you a Yankee, honey ? Does you want 
you fauchun told by de ole' 'oman ? " 

(76) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 77 

I perceived that the daughter of the Delawares smelt 
strongly of fire-water, and the fumes of her calumet were 
most unwholesome. She was greatly disappointed that I 
did not require her prophetic services, and said, appeal- 
ingly — 

" Why, sar, all de gen^elmen an' ladies from Richmond 
has dere fauchuns told. I tells 'em true. All my fauchuns 
comes out true. Ain't dat so, chillen ? " 

A low murmur of assent ran round the group, and I was 
obviously losing caste in the settlement. 

"Here is a dime," said I, ''that I will give you, to tell 
me the result of the war. Shall the North be victorious in 
the next battle ? Will Richmond surrender within a week ? 
Shall I take my cigar at the Spotswood on Sunday fort- 
night?" 

''I'se been a lookin' into dat," she said, cunningly; 
"Fse had dreams on dat ar'. Le'um see how de armies 
standi" 

She brought from the house a cup of painted earthen- 
ware containing sediments of coffee. I saw her crafty 
white eyes look up to mine as she muttered some jargon, 
and pretended to read the arrangement of the grains. 

''Honey," she said, " gi' me de money, and let de ole 
'oman dream on it once mo' I It ain't quite clar' yit, young 
massar. Tank you, honey I Tank you ! Let de old 'oman 
dream ! Let de ole 'oman dream 1 " 

She disappeared into the house, chuckling and chattering, 
and the sons of the forest, loitering awhile, dispersed in va- 
rious directions. As I followed my conductor to the river- 
side, and he parted the close bushes and boughs to give us 
exit, the glare of the camp-fires broke all at once upon us. 
The ship-lights quivered on the water ; the figures of men 
moved to and fro before the fagots ; the stars peeped tim- 
orously from the vault ; the woods and steep banks were 
blackly shadowed in the river. Here was I, among the 
aborigines ; and as my dusky acquaintance sent his canoe 



78 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03IBATAKT. 

skimming across the ripples, I thought how inexplicable 
were the decrees of Time and the justice of God. Two 
races united in these people, and both of them we had 
wronged. From the one we had taken lands ; from the 
other liberties. Two centuries had now elapsed. But the 
little remnant of the African and the American were to look 
from their Island Home upon the clash of our armies and 
the murder of our braves. 7 

By the 19th of May the skirts of the grand army had 
been gathered up, and on the 20th the march to Richmond 
was resumed. The troops moved along two main roads, of 
which the right led to Ncav Mechanicsville and Meadow 
Bridges, and the left to the railroad and Bottom Bridges. 
My division formed the right centre, and although the 
Chickahominy fords were but eighteen miles distant, we' 
did not reach them for three days. On the first night wo 
encamped at Tunstall's, a railroad-station on Black Creek ; 
on the second at New Cold Harbor, a little country tavern, 
kept by a cripple ; and on the night of the third day at 
Hogan's farm, on the north hills of the Chickahominy. The 
railroad was opened to Desj^atch Station at the same time, 
but the right and centre were still compelled to "teara'^ 
their supplies from White House. In the new position, the 
army extended ten miles along the Chickahominy hills ; and 
while the engineers were driving pile, tressel, pontoon, and 
corduroy bridges, the cavalry was scouring the country, on 
both flanks, far and wide. 

The advance was full of incident, and I learned to keep as 
far in front as possible, that I might communicate with 
scouts, contrabands, and citizens. Many odd personages 
were revealed to me at the farm-houses on the way, and I 
studied, with curious interest, the native Virginian charac- 
ter. They appeared to be compounds of the cavalier and 
the boor. There was no old gentleman who owned a thou- 
sand barren acres, spotted with scrub timber ; who lived in 
a weather-beaten barn, with a multiplicity of porch and a 



C.UIPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 79 

quantity of chimney ; whose means bore no proportion to 
his pride, and neither to his indolence, — that did not talk 
of his ancestry, proffer his hospitality, and defy me to an 
argument. I was a civilian, — they had no hostility to me, 
— but the blue-coats of the soldiers seared their eyeballs. 
In some cases their daughters remained upon the property ; 
but the sons and the negroes alwaj^s fled, — though in con- 
trary directions. The old men used to peep through tho 
windows at the passing columns ; and as their gates were 
wrenched from the hinges, their rails used to pry wagons 
out of the mud, their pump-handles shaken till the buckets 
splintered in the shaft, and their barns invaded by greasy 
agrarians, they walked to and fro, half-weakly, half-wrath- 
fuUy, bill with a pluck, fortitude, and devotion that wrung 
my resp.jct. Some aged negro women commonly remained, 
but these were rather incumbrances than aids, and they 
used the family meal to cook bread for the troops. An old, 
toothless, grinning African stood at every lane and gate, 
selling buttermilk and corn-cakes. Poor mortal, sinful old 
women I They had worked for nothing through their three- 
score and ten, but avarice glared from their shrivelled 
pupils, and their last but greatest delight lay in the 
coppers and the dimes. One would have thought that they 
had outlived the greed of gold ; but wages deferred make 
the dying miserly. 

The lords of the manors were troubled to know the 
number of our troops. For several days the columns passed 
with their interm.inable teams, batteries, and adjuncts, and 
the old gentlemen were loth to compute us at less than 
several millions. 

" Why, look yonder," said one, pointing to a brigade ; 
" I declar' to gracious, there ain't no less than ten thousand 
in them!'' 

'' Tousands an^ tousands ! " said a wondering negro at 
his elbow. "I wonda if dey'll take Richmond dis yer 
day?" 



80 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

Many of them huug white flags alrtheir gate-posts, imply- 
ing neutrality ; but nobody displayed the Federal colors. If 
there were any covert sympathizers with the purposes of the 
army, they remembered the vengeance of the neighbors and 
made no demonstrations. There was a prodigious number 
of stra<i:Gclers from the Federal lines, as these were the bane 
of the country people. They sauntered along by twos and 
threes, rambling into all the fields and green-apple orchards, 
intruding their noses into old cabins, prying into smoke- 
houses, and cellars, looking at the stock in the stables, and 
peeping on tiptoe into the windows of dwellings. These 
stragglers were true exponents of Yankee character, — 
alwa^^s wanting to know, — averse to discipline, eccentric 
in their orbits, entertaining profound contempt for every- 
thing that was not up to the measure of '' to hum." 

" Look here. Bill, I say ! '' said one, with a great grin on 
his lace ; " did you ever, neow ! I swan ! they call that a 
plough down in these parts.'' 

" Devilishest people I ever see ! '' said Bill, '' stick their 
meetin'-houses square in the woods ! Build their chimneys 
first and move the houses up to 'em ! All the houses 
breakin' out in perspiration of porch ! All their machinery 
with Noah in the ark ! Pump the soil dry ! Go to sleep a 
miikin' a keow ! Depend entirely on Providence and the 
nigger ! " 

There was a mill on the New Bridge road, ten miles from 
White House, with a tidy farm-house, stacks, and cabins 
adjoining. The road crossed the mill-race by a log bridge, 
and a spreading pond or dam lay to the left, — the water 
black as ink, the shore sandy, and the stream disappearing 
in a grove of straight pines. A youngish woman, with 
several small children, occupied the dwelling, and there re- 
mained, besides, her fat sister-in-law and four or five faithful 
negroes. I begged the favor of a meal and bed in the place 
one night, and shall not forget the hospitable table with its 
steaming biscuit ; the chubby baby, perched upon his high 



C^JPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 81 

stool ; the talkative elderly woman, who took snuff at the 
fireplace ; the contented black-girl, who plaj^ed the Hebe ; 
and above all, the trim, plump, pretty hostess, with her 
brown eyes and hair, her dignity and her fondness, sitting at 
the head of the board. When she poured the bright coffee 
into the capacious bowl, she revealed the neatest of hands 
and arms, and her dialect was softer and more musical than 
that of most Southerners. In short, I fell almost in love 
with her ; though she might have been a younger playmate 
of my mother's, and though she was the wife of a Quarter- 
master in a Virginia regiment. For, somehow, a woman 
seems very handsome when one is afield ; and the contact 
of rough soldiers, gives him a partiality for females. It 
must have required some courage to remain upon the farm ; 
but she hoped thereby to save the property from spoliation. 
I played a game of whist with the sister-in-law, arguing all 
the while ; and at nine o'clock the servant produced some 
hard cider, shellbarks, and apples. We drank a cheery 
toast: "an early peace and old fellowship!" — to which 
the wife added a sentiment of " always welcome," and the 
baby laughed at her knee. How brightly glowed the fire ! 
I wanted to linger for a week, a month, a year, — as I do 
now, thinking it all over, — and when I strolled to the 
porch, — hearing the pigeons cooing at the barn ; the water 
streaming down the dam ; the melancholy monotony of the 
pine boughs ; — there only lacked the humming mill-wheel, 
and the strong grip of the miller's hand, to fill the void 
corner of one's happy heart. 

But this was a time of war, when dreams are rudely 
broken, and mine could not last. The next day some great 
wheels beat down the bridge, and the teams clogged the 
road for miles ; the waiting teamsters saw the miller's 
sheep, and the geese, chickens, and pigs, rashly exposed 
themselves in the barnyard ; these were killed and eaten, 
the mill stripped of flour and meal, and the garden despoiled 
of its vegetables. A quartermaster's horse foundered, and 



82 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB ATxVlS'T. 

he demanded the miller's, giving {herefor a receipt, but 
specifying upon the same the owner's relation to the Rebel- 
lion ; and, to crown all, a group of stragglers, butchered the 
cows, and heaped the beef in their wagons to feed their 
regimental friends. When I presented myself, late in the 
aiternoon, the yard and porches were filled with soldiers ; 
the wife sat within, her head thrown upon the window, her 
bright hair unbound, and her eyes red with weeping. The 
baby had cried itself to sleep, the sister-in-law took snuff 
fiercely, at the fire ; the black girl cowered in a corner. 

"There is not bread in the house for my children," she 
said; "but I did not think they could make me shed a 
tear." 

If there were Spartan women, as the story-books say, I 
wonder if their blood died with them ! I hardly think 
so. 

If I learned anything from my quiet study of this and 
subsequent campaigns, it was the heartlessness of war. 
War brutalizes ! The most pitiful become pitiless afield, 
and those who are not callous, must do cruel duties. If 
the quartermaster had not seized the horses, he would have 
been accountable for his conduct ; had he failed to state 
the miller's disloj^alty in the receipt, he would have been 
punished. The men were thieves and brutes, to take the 
meal and meat ; but they were perhaps hungry and weary, 
and sick of camp food ; on the whole, I became a devotee of 
the George Fox faith, and hated warfare, though I knew 
nothing to substitute for it, in crises. 

Besides, the optimist might have seen much to admire. 
Individual merits were developed around me ; I saw shop- 
keepers and mechanics in the ranks, and they looked to be 
better men. Here were triumphs of engineering ; there 
perfections of applied ingenuity. I saw how the weakest 
natures girt themselves for great resolves, and how forti- 
tude outstripped itself. It is a noble thing to put by the 
fear of death. It was a grand spectacle, this civil soldiery of 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 83 

both sections, supporting their principles, ambitions, or 
whatever instigated them, with their bodies ; and their 
bones, lie where they will, must be severed, when the plough- 
share some day heaves them to the ploughman. 

One morning a friend asked me to go upon a scout. 

" Where are your companies ? '^ said I. 

" There are four behind, and we shall be joined by six at 
Old Cold Harbor. '' 

I saw, in the rear, filing through a belt of woods, the 
tall figures of the horsemen, approaching at a canter. 

" Do you command ? ^^ said I again. 

" No ! the Major has charge of the scout, and liis orders 
are secret.'' 

I wheeled beside him, as the cavalry closed up, waved my 
hand to Plumley, and the girls, and went forward to the ren- 
dezvous, about six miles distant. The remaining companies 
of the regiment were here drawn up, watering their nags. 
The Major was a thick, sunburnt man, with grizzled beard, 
and as he saw us rounding a corner of hilly road, his voice 
rang out — 

*' Attention ! Prepare to mount ! " 

Every rider sprang to his nag ; every nag walked instinc- 
tively to his place ; every horseman made fast his girths, 
strapped his blankets tightly, and lay his hands upon bridle- 
rein and pommel. 

" Attention! Mount!" 

The riders sprang to their seats ; the bugles blew a lively 
strain ; the horses pricked up their ears ; and the long array 
moved briskly forward, with the Captain, the Major, and 
myself at the head. We were joined in a moment by two 
pieces of flying artillery, and five fresh companies of caval- 
ry. In a moment more we were underway again, galloping 
due northward, and, as I surmised, toward Hanover Court 
House. If any branch of the military service is feverish, adven- 
turous, and exciting, it is that of the cavalry. One's heart 
beats as fast as the hoof-falls ; there is no music like thQ 



84 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

winding' of the bugle, and no monotone so full of meaning 
as the clink of sabres rising and falling with the dashing 
pace. Horse and rider become one, — a new race of Cen. 
taurs, — and the charge, the stroke, the crack of carbines, 
are so quick, vehement, and dramatic, that we seem to be 
watching the joust of tournaments or following fierce Sala- 
dins and Crusaders again. We had ridden two hours at a 
fair canter, when we came to a small stream that crossed 
the road obliquely, and gurgled away through a sandy val- 
ley into the deepnesses of the woods. A cart-track, half 
obliterated, here diverged, running parallel with the creek, 
and the Major held up his sword as a signal to halt ; at the 
same moment the bugle blew a quick, shrill note. 

" There are hoof-marks here ! '^ grunted the Major, — 
" five of 'em. The Dutchman has gone into the thicket. 
Hulloo!" he added, precipitately — " there go the car- 
bines ! " 

I heard, clearly, two explosions in rapid succession ; then 
a general discharge, as of several persons firing at once, 
and at last, five continuous reports, fainter, but more regu- 
lar, and like the several emptjangs of a revolver. I had 
scarcely time to note these things, and the effect produced 
upon the troop, when strange noises came from the woods 
to the right : the floundering of steeds, the cries and curses 
of men, and the ringing of steel striking steel. Directly 
the boughs crackled, the leaves quivered, and a horse and 
rider plunged into the road, not five rods from my feet. 
The man was bareheaded, and his face and clothing were 
torn with briars and branches. He was at first riding fairly 
upon our troops, when he beheld the uniform and standards, 
and with a sharp oath flung up his sword and hands. 

" I surrender ! " he said ; '' I give in ! Don't shoot ! " 

The scores of carbines that were levelled upon him at 
once dropped to their rests at the saddles ; but some unseen 
avenger had not heeded the shriek ; a ball whistled from the 
woods, and the man fell from his cushion like a stone. In 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 85 

another instant, the German sergeant bounded through the 
gap, holding his sabre aloft in his right hand ; but the left 
hung stiff and shattered at his side, and his face was deathly 
white. He glared an instant at the dead man by the road- 
side, leered grimly, and called aloud — 

" Come on. Major ! Dis vay I Dere are a squad of dem 
ahead ! '^ 

The bugle at once sounded a charge, the Major rose in 
the stirrups, and thundered " Forward !^^ I reined aside, 
intuitively, and the column dashed hotly past me. With a 
glance at the heap of mortality littering the way, I spurred 
m}^ nag sharply, and followed hard behind. The riderless 
horse seemed to catch the fever of the moment, and closed 
up with me, leaving his master the solitary tenant of the 
dell. For perhaps three miles we galloped like the wind, 
and my brave little traveller overtook the hindmost of the 
troop, and retained the position. Thrice there were dis- 
charges ahead ; I caught glimpses of the Major, the Cap- 
tain, and the wolfish sergeant, far in the advance ; and once 
saw, through the cloud of dust that beset them, the pur- 
sued and their individual pursuers, turning the top of a 
hill. But for the most part, I saw nothing ; I felt all the 
intense, consuming, burning ardor of the time and the event. 
I thought that my hand clutched a sabre, and despised my- 
self that it was not there. I stood in the stirrups, and held 
some invisible enemy by the throat. In a word, the bloodi- 
ness of the chase was upon me. I realized the fierce infatu- 
ation of matching life with life, and standing arbiter upon 
my fellow's body and soul. It seemed but a moment, when 
we halted, red and panting, in the paltry Court House vil- 
lage of Hanover ; the field-pieces hurled a few shells at the 
escaping Confederates, and the men were ordered to dis- 
mount. 

It seemed that a Confederate picket had been occupying 
the village, and the creek memorized by the skirmish was 
8 



86 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

an outpost merely. Two of the man Otto's party had been 
slain in the woods, where also lay as many Southerners. 

Hanover Court House is renowned as the birthplace of 
Patrick Henry, the colonial orator, called by Byron the 
'•' forest Demosthenes." In a little tavern, opposite the old 
Court House building, he began his humble career as a 
measurer of gills to convivials, and in the Court House, — 
a small stone edifice, plainly but quaintly constructed, — he 
gave the first exhibitions ol' his matchless eloquence. Not 
far away, on a by-road, the more modern but not less fa- 
mous orator, Henry Clay, was born. The region adjacent 
to his father's was called the " Slashes of Hanover,'' and 
thence came his appellation of the " Mill Boy of the 
Slashes." I had often longed to visit these shrines ; but 
never dreamed that the booming of cannon would announce 
me. The soldiers broke into both the tavern and court- 
house, and splintered some chairs in the former to obtain 
relics of Henry. I secured Richmond newspapers of the 
same morning, and also some items of intelligence. With 
these I decided to repair at once to AVhite House, and 
formed the rash determination of taking the direct or Pa- 
munkey road, which I had never travelled, and which might 
be beset by Confederates. The distance to White House, 
by this course, was onl}'' twenty miles ; whereas it was 
nearly as far to head-quarters ; and I believed that my horse 
had still the persistence to carry me. It was past four 
o'clock ; but I thought to ride six miles an hour while day- 
light lasted, and, by good luck, get to the depot at nine. 
The Major said that it was foolhardiness ; the Captain ban- 
tered me to go. I turned my back upon both, and bade 
them good by. , 



CHAPTER IX. 



PUT UNDER ARREST. 



While daylight remained, I had little reason to repent my 
wayward resolve. The Pamunkey lay to my left, and the 
residences between it and the road were of a better order 
than others that I had seen. This part of the country had 
not been overrun, and the wheat and young corn were 
waving in the river-breeze. I saw few negroes, but the 
porches were frequently occupied by women and white men, 
who looked wonderingly toward me. There were some 
hoof-marks in the clay, and traces of a broad tire that I 
thought belonged to a gun-carriage. The hills of King 
William County were but a little way off, and through the 
wood that darkened them, sunny glimpses of vari-colored 
fields and dwellings now and then appeared. I came to a 
shabby settlement called New Castle, at six o'clock, where 
an evil-looking man walked out from a frame-house, and 
inquired the meaning of the firing at Hanover. 

I explained hurriedly, as some of his neighbors meantime 
gathered around me. They asked if I was not a soldier in 
the Yankee army, and as I rode away, followed me sus- 
piciously with their eyes and wagged their heads. To end 
the matter I spurred my pony and soon galloped out of 
sight. Henceforward I met only stern, surprised glances, 
and seemed to read "murder'' in the faces of the inhab- 
itants. A wide creek crossed the road about five miles 
further on, where I stopped to water my horse. The shades 

(87) 



88 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATAXT. 

of night were gathering no\y ; there was no moon ; and for 
the first time I realized the loneliness of my position. Hith- 
erto, adventure had laughed down fear ; hereafter my mind 
was to be darkened like the gloaming, and peopled with 
ghastly shadows. 

I was yet young in the experience of death, and the top- 
pled corpse of the slain cavalry-man on the scout, somehow 
haunted me. I heard his hoof-falls chiming with my own, 
and imagined, with a cold thrill, that his steed was still 
following me ; then, his white rigid face and uplifted arms 
menaced my way ; and, at last, the ruffianly form of his 
slayer pursued him along the wood. They glided like shad- 
ows over the foliage, and flashed across the surfaces of pools 
and rivulets. I heard their steel ringing in the underbrush, 
and they flitted around me, pursuing and retreating, till my 
brain began to whirl with the motion. Suddenly my horse 
stumbled, and I reined him to a halt. 

The cold drops were standing on my forehead. I found 
my knees a-quiver and my breathing convulsive. With an 
expletive upon my unmanliness, I touched the nag with my 
heel, and whistled encouragingly. Poor pony I Fifty miles 
of almost uninterrupted travel had broken his spirit. He 
leaped into his accustomed pace : but his legs were unsteady 
and he floundered at every bound. There were pools, ruts, 
and boughs across the way, with here and there stretches 
of slippery corduroy ; but the thick blackness concealed 
these, and I expected momentarily to be thrown from the 
saddle. By and by he dropped from a canter into a rock ; 
from a rock to an amble ; then into a walk, and finally to a 
slow painful limp. I dismounted and took him perplexedly 
by the bit. A light shone from the window of a dwelling 
across some open fields to the left, and I thought of repair- 
ing thither; but some deep-mouthed dogs began to bay 
directly, and then the lamp went out. A tiny stream sang 
at the roadside, flowing toward some deeper tributary; 
lighting a cigar, I made out, by its fitful illuminings, to wash 



ca:mpaigns of a non-combatant. 89 

the limbs of the jaded nag. Then I led him for an hour, till 
my own limbs were weary, troubled all the time by weird 
imaginings, doubts, and regrets. When I resumed the 
saddle the horse had a firmer step and walked pleasantly. 
I ventured after a time to incite him to a trot, and was going 
nicely forward, when a deep voice, that almost took my 
breath, called from the gloom — 

''Who comes there? Halt, or I fire! Guard, turn 
out ! -' 

Directly the road was full of men, and a bull's-eye lan- 
tern fiashed upon my face. A group of foot-soldiery, with 
drav/u pistols and sabres, gathered around me, and I heard 
the neigh of steeds from some imperceptible vicinity. 
" Who is it. Sergeant ? '^ said one. '' Is there but one of 
'em ? " said another. '' Cuss him ! '^ said a third ; ''I was 
takin' a bully snooze." "Who are j^eou ? " said the Ser- 
geant, stonily ; '' what are yeou deouin' aout at this hour o' 
the night ? Are yeou a rcbbil ? '' 

"No!" I answered, greatly relieved; " I am a news- 
paper correspondent of Smith's division, and there's my 
pass ! " 

I was taken over to a place in the woods, where some 
fagots were smouldering, and, stirring them to a blaze, the 
Sergeant read the document and pronounced it right. 

" Yeou hain't got no business, nevertheless, to be roamin' 
araound outside o' picket ; but seein' as it's yeou, I reckon 
yeou may trot along ! " 

I offered to exchange my information for a biscuit and a 
drop of coffee, for I was wellnigh worn out ; while one of 
the privates produced a canteen more wholesome than 
cleanly, another gave me a lump of fat pork and a piece of 
corn bread. They gathered sleepily about me, while I told 
of the scout, and the Sergeant said that my individual ride 
was " game enough, but nothin' but darn nonsense." Then 
they fed my horse with a trifle of oats, and after awhile I 
8* 



90 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

climbed, stiff and bruised, to the saddle again, and bade 
them good night. 

I knev/ now that I was at " Putney's, '' a ford on the 
Pamunkey, and an hour later I came in sight of the ship- 
lights at White House, and heard the steaming of tugs and 
draught-boats, going and coming by night. I hitched my 
horse to a tree, pilfered some hay and fodder from two or 
three nags tied adjacent, and picked my way across a gang- 
way, several barge-decks, and a floating landing, to the mail 
steamer that lay outside. Her deck and cabin were filled 
with people, stretched lengthwise and crosswise, tangled, 
grouped, and snoring, but all apparently fast asleep. I 
cooU}^ took a blanket from a man that looked as though he 
did not need it, and wrapped myself cosily under a bench 
in a corner. The cabin light flared dimly, half irradiating 
the forms below, and the boat heaved a little on the river- 
swells. The night was cold, th6 floor hard, and I almost 
dead with fatigue. But what of that ! I felt the newspa- 
pers in my breast pocket, and knew that the mail could not 
leave me in the morning. Blessed be the news-gatherer's 
sleep ! I think he earned it. 

It was very pleasant, at dawn, to receive the congratula- 
tions of our agent, with whom I breakfasted, and to whom 
I consigned a hastily written letter and all the Richmond 
papers of the preceding day. He was a shrewd, sanguine, 
middle-aged man, of large experience and good standing in 
our establishment. He was sent through the South at 
the beginning of the Rebellion, and introduced into all public 
bodies and social circles, that he might fathom the designs 
of Secession, and comprehend its spirit. Afterward ho 
accompanied the Hatteras and Port Royal expeditions, and 
witnessed those celebrated bombardments. Such a thorough 
individual abnegation I never knew. He was a part of the 
establishment, body and soul. He agreed with its politics, 
adhered to all its policies, defended it, upheld it, revered it. 
The Federal Government was, to his eye, merely an adjunct 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COIVIBATANT. 91 

of the paper. Battles and sieges were simply occurrences 
for its columns. Good men, brave men, bad men, died to 
give it obituaries. The whole world was to him a Report- 
er's district, and all human mutations plain matters of news. 
I hardly think that any city, other than New York, contains 
such characters. The journals there are full of fever, and 
the profession of journalism is a disease. 

He cashed me a draft for a hundred dollars, and I filled 
my saddle-bags with smoking-tobacco, spirits, a meer- 
schaum pipe, jDackages of sardines, a box of cigars, and 
some cheap publications. Then we adjourned to the quay, 
where the steamer was taking in mails, freight and passen- 
gers. The papers were in his side-pocket, and he was 
aboiit to commit them to a steward for transmission to 
Fortress Monroe, when my name was called from the strand 
by a young mounted officer, connected with one of the staffs 
of my division. I thought that he wished to exchange sal- 
utations or make some inquiries, and tripped to his side. 

" General McClellan wants those newspapers that you 
obtained at Hanover yesterday I'' 

A thunderbolt would not have more transfixed me. I 
could not speak for a moment. Finally, I stammered that 
they were out of my possession. 

" Then, sir, I arrest you, by order of General McClellan. 
Get your horse ! '' 

" Stop ! '' said I, agitatedly, " — it may not be too late. 
I can recover them yet. Here is our agent, — I gave them 
to him.'' 

I turned, at the word, to the landing where he stood a 
moment before. To my dismay, he had disappeared. 

" This is some frivolous pretext to escape," said the Lieu- 
tenant ; you correspondents are slippery fellows, but I shall 
take care that you do not play any pranks with me. The 
General is irritated already, and if you prevaricate relative 
to those papers he may make a signal example of you." 

I begged to be allowed to look for ; but he answered 



92 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 

cunningly, that I had better mount and ride on. An ac- 
quaintance of mine here interfered, and testified to the ex- 
istency of the agent and his probable connection with the 
journals. Pale, flurried, excited, I started to discover him, 
the Lieutenant following me closely meantime. We entered 
every booth and tent, went from craft to craft, sought 
among the thick clusters of people, and even at the Com- 
missary's and Quai'termaster's pounds, that lay some dis- 
tance up the railroad, 

" I am sorry for you, old fellow," said the Lieutenant, 
"but your accomplice has probably escaped. It's very 
sneaking of him, as it makes it harder for you ; but I have 
no authority to deal with him, though I shall take care to 
report his conduct at head-quarters." 

I found that the Lieutenant was greatly gratified with the 
duty entrusted to him. He had been at the cavalry quar- 
ters on the return of the scouting party, and had overheard 
the Major muttering something as to McClellan's displeasure 
at receiving no Richmond journals. The Major had added 
that one of the correspondents took them to White House, 
and, mentioning mo by name, this young and aspiring sat- 
ellite had blurted out that he knew me, and could doubt- 
less overtake me at the mail-boat in the morning. The Com- 
manding General authorized him to arrest me with the pa- 
pers, and report at head-quarters. This was then a journey 
to recommend him to authority, and it involved no personal 
danger. I was not so intimidated that I failed to see how 
the Lieutenant would lose his gayest feather by failing to 
recover the journals, and I dexterously insinuated that it 
would be well to recommence the search. This time we 
were successful. The shrewd, sanguine, middle-aged man 
was coolly contemplating the river from an outside barge, 
concealed from the shore by piled boxes of ammunition. 
He was reading a phonetic pamphlet, and appeared to take 
his appreliension as a pleasant morning call, I caught one 
meaning glance, however, that satisfied me how clearly he 
understood the case. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 93 

''Hal Townsend/^ said he, smilingly, " back already ? 
I thought we had lost you. One of your military friends ? 
Good-day, Lieutenant/' 

'' I am under arrest, my boy,'' said I, " and you will much 
aggravate General McClellan, if you do not consign those 
Richmond journals to his deputy here." 

'' Under arrest ? You surprise me ! I am sorry, Lieuten- 
ant that you have had so fatiguing a ride, but the fact is, 
those papers have gone down the river. If the General is 
not in a great hurry, he will see their columns reproduced 
by us in a few days.'' 

" How did they go ? " said the Lieutenant, with an oath, 
" if by the mail-boat I will have General Van Vliet despatch 
a tug to overhaul her." 

''I am very sorry again," said the bland civilian, 
smoothing his hands : " but they went by the South Amer- 
ica at a much earlier hour." 

I looked appealingly to him ; the satallite stared down 
the river perplexedly, but suddenly his eye fell upon some- 
thing that absorbed it; and he turned like a madman 
to 

''By!. sir, you are lying to me. There is the 

South America moored to a barge, and her steam is not 
up!" 

" Those words are utterly uncalled for," said the agent, — 
"but you cannot irritate me, my dear sir! I know that 
youth is hot, — particularly military youth yet inexperi- 
enced ; and therefore I pardon you. I made a mistake. It 
was not the South America, it was — it was — upon my 
word I cannot recall the name ! " 

"You do not mean to ! " thundered the young Ajax, to 

whose vanity, 's speech had been gall ; "my powers are 

discretionary : I arrest you in the name of General 
McCleUan." 

"Indeed! Be sure you understand your orders! It 
isn't probable that such a fiery blade is allowed much dis- 



94 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

cretionary margin. The General himself would not assume 
such airs. Why don't you shoot me ? It might contribute 
to your promotion, and that is, no doubt, your object. I 
know General McClellan very well. lie is a personal 
friend of mine.'' 

His manner was so self-possessed, his tone so cutting, 
that the young man of fustian — whose name was Kenty — 
fingered his sword hilt, and foamed at the lips. 

"March on," said he, — "I will report this insolence 
word for word." 

He motioned us to the quay ; we preceded him. The 
sanguine gentleman keeping up a running fire of malevolent 
sarcasm. 

" Stop 1 " said he quietly, as we reached his tent, — ^' I 
have not sent them at all. They are here. And you have 
made all this exhibition of yourself for nothing. I am the 
better soldier, jon see. You are a drummer-boy, not an 
officer. Take oif your shoulder-bars, and go to school 
again." 

He disappeared a minute, returned with two journals, 
and looking at me, meaningly, turned to their titles. 

" Let me see ! " he said, smoothly, — " Richmond Exam- 
iner, May 28, Richmond Enquirer, May 22. There ! You 
have them ! Go in peace ! Give my respects to General 
McClellan ! Townsend, old fellow, you have done your full 
duty. Don't let this young person frighten you. Good 
by.'' 

He gave me his hand, with a sinister glance, and left 
something in my palm when his own was withdrawn. I 
examined it hastily when I girt up my saddle. It said: 
" Your budget got off safe, old fellow J ^ He had given 
Kenty some old journals that were of no value to anybody. 
When we were mounted and about to start, the Lieutenant 
looked witheringly upon his persecutor — 

'* Allow me to say, sir," he exclaimed, '* that you are the 
most unblushing liar I ever knew." 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 95 

"Thank you, kindly/^ said , taking oil Iiis hat, 

*' you do me honor ! " 

Our route was silent and weary enough. The young man 
at my side, unconscious of his wily antagonist's deception, 
boasted for some time that he had attained his purposes. As 
I could not undeceive him, I held my tongue ; but feared 
that when this trick should be made manifest, the vengeance 
would fall on me alone. I heartily wished the unlucky 
papers at the bottom of the sea. To gratify an adventurous 
whim, and obtain a day's popularity at New York, I had 
exposed my life, crippled my nag, and was now to be dis- 
graced and punished. What might or might not befall i^, 
I gloomily debated. The least penalty would be expulsion 
from the army ; but imprisonment till the close of the war, 
was a favorite amusement with the War Office. How my 
newspaper connection would be embarrassed was a more 
grievous inquiry. It stung me to think that I had blun- 
dered twice on the very threshold of my career. Was I not 
acquiring a reputation for rashness that would hinder all 
future promotion and cast me from the courts of the 
press. Here the iron entered into my soul ; for be it 
known, I loved Bohemia ! This roving commission, these 
vagabond habits, this life in the open air among the. armies, 
the white tents, the cannon, and the drums, they were my 
elysium, my heart ! But to be driven away, as one who had 
broken his trust, forfeited favor and confidence, and that too 
on the eve of grand events, was something that would em- 
bitter my existence. 

We passed the familiar objects that I had so often buo}^- 
antly beheld, — deserted encampments, cross-roads, rills, 
farm-houses, fields, and at last came to Baker's. I called 
out to them, and explained my woful circumstances with 
rueful conciseness. 

It was growing dark when we came to general head- 
quarters, two miles beyond Gaines's Mill. The tents were 
scattered over the surface of a hill, and most of them were 
illumined by candles. 



96 CAMPAIGNS OP A NON-COMBATANT. 

The Lieutenant gave our horses to an orderly, and led the 
way throug-h two outer circles of wall-tents, between which 
and the inner circle, guards were pacing, to deny all vulgar 
ingress. 

A staff officer took in our names, and directly returned 
with the reply of " Pass in I " ^ We were now in the 
sacred enclosure, secured by flaming swords. Four tents 
stood in a row, allotted respectively to the Chief of Staff, 
the Adjutant-General, the telegraph operators, and the 
select staff officers. Just behind them, embowered by a 
covering of cedar boughs, stood the tent of General Mc- 
CJellan. Close by, from an open plot or area of ground, 
towered a pine trunk, floating the national flag. Lights 
burned in three of the tents : low voices, as of subdued con- 
versation, were heard from the first. 

C A little flutter of my heart, a drawing aside of canvas, 
two steps, an uncovering, and a bow, — I stood at my 
tribunal 1 A couple of candles were placed upon a table, 
whereat sat a fine specimen of man, with kindly features, 
dark, grayish, flowing hair, and slight marks of years upon 
his full, purplish face. He looked to be a well-to-do citizen, 
whose success had taught him sedentary convivialities. A 
fuming cigar lay before him ; some empty champagne bottles 
sat upon a pine desk ; tumblers and a decanter rested upon a 
camp-stool ; a bucket, filled with water and a great block 
of ice, was visible under the table. Five other gentlemen, 
each with a star in his shoulder-bar, were dispersed upon 
chairs and along a camp bedside. The tall, angular, dig- 
nified gentleman with compressed lips and a '' character '^ 
nose, was General Barry, Chief of Artillery. The lithe, 
severe, gristly, sanguine person, whose eyes flashed even in 
repose, was General Stoneman, Chief of Cavalry. The 
large, sleepy-eyed, lymphatic, elderly man, clad in dark, 
civiJ gray, whose ears turned up habitually as from deafness, 
was Prince de Joinville, brother to Louis Philippe, King of 
France. The little man with red hair and beard, who moved 



CAMPxUGNS or A XOX-C03Ii3ATANT. D7 

quickly and who spoke sharply, was Seth Williams, Ad^ 
jutant-General. The stout person with florid face, large, 
blue eyes, and white, straight hair, was General Van Vliet, 
Quartermaster-General. And the man at the table, was 
General Marcy, father-in-law to McClellan, and Executive 
officer of the army. 

Maps, papers, books, and luggage lay around the room ; 
all the gentlemen were smoking and wine sparkled in most 
of the glasses. Some swords were lying upon the floor, a 
pair of spurs glistened by the bed, and three of the officers 
had their feet in the air. 

^ '' What is it you wish, Lieutenant ? '^ said General Marcy, 
gravely. 

The boor in uniform at my side, related his errand and 
order, gave the particulars of my arrest, declaimed against 
our agent, and submitted the journals. He told his story 
stammeringly, and I heard one of the officers in the back- 
ground mutter contemptuously when he had finished. 

" Were you aware of the order prohibiting correspond- 
ents from keeping with the advance ? " said the General, 
looking up. 

" I had not been notified from head-quarters. I have been 
with the army only a week.'' 

" You knew that you had no business upon scouts, for- 
ages, or reconnoissances ; why did you go ? " 

" I went by invitation.'' 

*' Who invited you ? " 

" I would prefer not to state, since it would do him an 
injury." 

Here the voices in the background muttered, as I thought, 
applaudingly. Gaining confidence as I proceeded, I spoke 
more boldly — 

" I am sure I regret that I have disobeyed any order of 
General McClellan's ; but there can nothing occur in the 
rear of an army. Obedience, in this case, would be indo- 
lence and incompetence ; for only the reliable would stay 
9 



98 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

behind and the reckless go ahead. If I am accredited here 
as a correspondent, I must keep up with the events. And 
the rivahnes of our tribe, General, are so many, that the 
best of us sometimes forget what is right for what is expe- 
dient. I hope that General McClellan will pass by this 
offence." 

He heard my rambling defence quietly, excused the Lieu- 
tenant, and whistled for an orderly. 

" I don't think that you meant to offend General McClel- 
lan," he said, ''but he wishes you to be detained. Give 
me your pass. Orderly, take tiiis gentleman to General 
Porter, and tell him to treat him kindly. Good night." 

When we got outside of the tent, I slipped a silver half- 
dollar into the orderly's hand, and asked him if he under- 
stood the General's final remark. He said, in reply, that I 
was directed to be treated with courtesy, kindness, and care, 
and asked me, in conclusion, if there were any adjectives 
that might intensify the recommendation. When we came 
to General Porter, the Provost-Marshal, however, he pooh- 
poohed the qualifications, and said that Ms business was 
merel}^ to put me under surveillance. This unamiable man 
ordered me to be taken to Major Willard, the deputy Pro- 
vost, whose tent we found after a long- search. The Major 
was absent, but some young officers of his mess were tak- 
ing supper at his table, and with these I at once engaged 
in conversation. 

I knew that if I was to be spared an immersion in the 
common guardhouse, with drunkards, deserters, and prison- 
ers of war, I must win the favor of these men. I gave 
them the story of my arrest, spoke lightly of the offence 
and jestingly of the punishment, and, in fact, so improved 
my cause that, when the Major appeared, and the Sergeant 
consigned me to his custody, one of the young officers took 
him aside, and, I am sure, said some good words in my 
favor. 

The Major was a bronzed, indurated gentleman, scrupu- 



C.\W^AlG2sS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 99 

lously attired, and courteously stern. He looked at me 
twice or thrice, to my confusion ; for I was dusty, wan, 
and running over with perspiration. His first remark had, 
naturally, reference to the lavatory, and, so far as my face 
and hair were concerned, I was soon rejuvenated. I found 
on my return to the tent, a clean plate and a cup of steam- 
ing coffee placed for me, and I ate with a full heart though 
pleading covertly the while. When I had done, and the 
tent became deserted by all save him and me, he said, sim- 

piy— 

" What am I to do with you, Mr. Townsend ? '' 
^' Treat me as a gentleman, I hope. Major," 
" We have but one place of confinement,'^ said he, ''the 
guardhouse ; but I am loth to send you there. Light your 
pipe, and I will think the matter over.'' 

He took a turn in front, consulted with some of his asso- 
ciates, and directly returning, said that I was to be quar- 
tered in his office-tent, adjoining. A horror being thus lifted 
from my mind, I heard with sincere interest many revela- 
tions of his military career. He had been a common sol- 
dier in the Mexican war, and had fought his way, step by 
step, to repeated commissions. He had garrisoned Fort 
Yuma, and other posts on the far plains, and at the begin- 
ning of the war was tendered a volunteer brigade, which 
he modestly declined. His tastes were refined, and a warm 
fancy, approaching poetry, enhanced his personal reminis- 
cences. His face softened, his eyes grew milder, his large, 
commanding mouth relaxed, — he was young again, living 
his adventures over. We talked thus till almost midnight, 
when two regulars appeared in front, — stiff, ramrodish fig- 
ures, that came to a jerking "present," tapped their caps 
with two fingers, and said, explosively ; " Sergeant of 
Guard, Number Five I " 

The Major rose, gave me his hand, and said that I would 
find a candle in my tent, with waterproof and blankets on 
the ground. I was to give myself no concern about the 



100 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

nag, and might, if I chose, sit for an hour to write, but 
must, on no account, attempt to leave the canvas, for the 
guard would instantly shoot me down. The guard in ques- 
tion had a doppel-ganger, — counterpart of himself in inflexi- 
bility, — and both were appendages of their muskets. He 
was not probably a sentient being, certainly not a conversa- 
tional one. He knew the length of a stride, and the manual 
of bayonet exercise, but was, during his natural life, a blind 
idolater of a deity, called " Orders. '^ The said " Orders," 
for the present evening, were walking, not talking, and he 
was dumb to all conciliatory words. He took a position at 
one end of my tent, and his double at the other end. They 
carried their muskets at " support arms," and paced up and 
down, measuredly, like two cloaked and solemn ghosts. I 
wrapped myself in the damp blankets, and slept through the 
bangs of four or five court-martials and several executions. 
At three o'clock, they changed ramrods, — the old doppel- 
gangers going away, and two new ones fulfilling their 
functions. 



CHAPTER X, 



AFTER THE VICTORY, 



The two ramrods were still pacing to and fro, when I 
aroused in the gray of the morning ; but they looked very 
misty and moist, as if they were impalpables that were 
shortly to evaporate. The Major poked his head between 
the flaps at eight o'clock, and said that breakfast was ready ; 
but the ramrod nearest me kept vigilantly alongside, and I 
thought he had been invited also. . The other ramrod 
guarded the empty tent, and I think that he believed me a 
droppel-ganger likewise. 

I wondered what was to be done with me, as the hours 
slipped rapidly by. The guards were relieved again at ten 
o'clock, and Quartermaster's men commenced to take down 
the tents. Camps were to be moved, and I inquired solici- 
tously if I was to be moved also. The Major replied that 
prisoners were commonly made to walk along the road, es- 
corted by horsemen, and I imagined, with dread, the com- 
panionship of negroes, estrays, ragged Confederates, and 
such folk, while the whole army should witness my degra- 
dation. Finally, all the tents were lifted and packed in 
wagons, as well as the furniture. I adhered to a stool, at 
which the teamster looked wistfully, and the implacable 
sentinels walked to and fro. A rumor became current 
among the private soldiers, that I was the nephew of the 
southern General Lee, whose wife had been meantime cap- 
tured at Hanover Court House. Curious groups sauntered 
9* (ion 



102 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

around me, and talked behind their hands. One man was 
overheard to say that I had fought desperately, and cov- 
ered myself with glory, and another thought that I favored 
my uncle somewhat, and might succeed to his military 
virtues. 

'' I guess I'll take that cheer, if you ain't got no objec- 
tion," said the teamster, and he slung it into the wagon. 
What to do now troubled me materially ; but one of the sol- 
diers brought a piece of rail, and I "squatted" lugubriously 
on the turf. 

'' If you ever get to Richmond," said I, " you shall be 
considerately treated." (Profound sensation.) 

"Thankee ! " replied the man, touching his cap ; "but 
I'm worry well pleased out o' Richmond, Captain." 

Here the Major was seen approaching, a humorous smile 
playing about his eyes. 

" You are discharged," said he ; " General Marcy will 
return your pass, and perhaps your papers." 

I wrung his hand with indescribable relief, and he sent 
the "ramrod" on guard, to saddle my horse. In a few 
minutes, I was mounted again, much to the surprise of the 
observers of young Lee, and directly I stood before the 
kindly Chief of Stalf. At my request, he wrote a note to 
the division commander, specifying my good behavior, and 
restoring to me all privileges and immunities. He said 
nothing whatever as to the mistake in the papers, and told 
me that, on special occasions, I might keep with advances, 
by procuring an extraordinary pass at head-quarters. In 
short, my arrest conduced greatly to my efficiency. I inva- 
riably carried my Richmond despatches to General Marcy, 
thereafter, and, if there v/as information of a legitimate de- 
scription, he gave me the benefit of it. 

My own brigade lay at Dr. Gaines's house, during this 
time, and we did not lack for excitement. Jnst behind the 
house lay several batteries of rifled guns, and these threw 
shells at hourly intervals, at certain Confederate batteries 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COiMBATANT. 103 

across the river. The distance was two miles or less ; but 
the firing was generally wretched. Crowds of soldiers gath- 
ered around, to watch the practice, and they threw up tlieir 
hats applaudingly at successful hits. Occasionally a great 
round shot would bound up the hill, and a boy, one day, see- 
ing one of these spent balls rolling along the ground, put 
out his foot to stop it, but shattered his leg so dreadfully 
that it had to be amputated. Dr. Gaines was a rich, aristo- 
cratic, and indolent old Virginian, whose stables, summer- 
houses, orchards, and negro-quarters were the finest in 
their district. The shooting so anno3^ed him that he used to 
resort to the cellar ; several shots passed through his 
roof, and one of the chimneys was knocked off. His family 
carriages were five in number, and as his stables were 
turned into hospitals, these were all hauled into his lawn, 
where tlieir obsolete trimmings and queer shape constantly 
amused the soldiers. About this time I became acquainted 
with some officers of the 5th Maine regiment, and by permis- 
sion, accompanied them to Mechanicsville. I was here, on 
the afternoon of Thursday, May 27, when the battle of Han- 
over Court House was fought. We heard the rapid growl 
of guns, and continuous volleys of musketry, though the 
place was fourteen miles distant. At evening, a report was 
current that the Federals had gained a great victory, and 
captured seven hundred prisoners. The truth of this was 
established next morning; for detachments of prisoners 
were from time to time brought in, and the ambulances 
came to camp, laden with the wounded. I took this oppor- 
tunity of observing the Confederate soldiers, as they lay at 
the Provost quarters, in a roped pen, perhaps one hundred 
rods square. 

It was evening, as I hitched my horse to a stake near-by, 
and pressed up to the receptacle for the unfortunates. 
Sentries enclosed the pen, walking to-and-fro with loaded 
muskets; a throng of officers and soldiers had assembled to 
gratify their curiosity ; and new detachments of captives 
came in hourly, encircled by sabremen, the Southerners 



104 CAMPAIGNS OF A X0X-C0:MRATANT. 

being disarmed and on foot. The scene within the area 
was ludicrously moving. It reminded me of the witch-scene 
in Macbeth, or pictures of brigands or Bohemian gypsies at 
rendezvous, not less than five hundred men, in motley, 
ragged costumes, with long hair, and lean, wild, haggard 
i'aces, were gathered in groups or in pairs, around some 
fagot fires. In the growing darkness their expressions 
were imperfectly visible ; but I could see that most of them 
were weary, and hungry, and all were depressed and 
ashamed. Some were wrapped in blankets of rag-carpet, 
and others wore shoes of rough, untanned hide. Others 
were without either shoes or jackets, and their heads were 
bound with red handkerchiefs. Some appeared in red 
shirts ; some in stifl' beaver hats ; some were attired in 
shreds and patches of cloth ; and a few wore the soiled 
garments of citizen gentlemen ; but the mass adhered to 
homespun suits of gray, or "butternut," and the coarse 
blue kersey common to slaves. In places I caught glimpses 
of red Zouave breeches and leggings ; blue Federal caps, 
Federal buttons, or Federal blouses ; these were the spoils 
of anterior battles, and had been stripped from the slain. 
Most of the captives were of the appearances denominated 
" scraggy " or ''knotty." They were brown, brawny, and 
wiry, iind their countenances were intense, fierce, and ani- 
mal. They came from North Carolina, the poorest and 
least enterprising Southern State, and ignorance, with its 
attendant virtues, were the common facial manifestations. 
Some lay on the bare ground, fast asleep ; others chatted 
nervously as if doubtful of their future treatment ; a few 
were boisterous, and anxious to beg tobacco or coffee from 
idle Federals ; the rest — and they comprehended the 
greater number — were silent, sullen, and vindictive. They 
met curiosity with scorn, and spite with imprecations. A 
child — not more than four years of age, I think — sat 
sleeping in a corner upon an older comrade's lap. A gra3^- 
bearded pard was staunching a gash in his cheek with the 
tail of his coat. A fine-looking young fellow sat with his 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COilBATANT. 105 

face in his hands, as if his heart were far off, and he wished 
to shut out this bitter scene. In a corner, lying morosely 
apart, were a Major, three Captains, and three Lieuten- 
ants, — young athletic fellows, dressed in rich gray cassi- 
mere, trimmed with black, and wearing soft black hats 
adorned with black ostrich-feathers. Their spurs were 
strappe(J upon elegantly fitting boots, and they looked as 
far above the needy, seedy privates, as lords above their 
vassals. 

After a time, couples and squads of the prisoners were 
marched off to cut and carry some firewood, and water, 
for the use of their pen, and then each Confederate received 
coffee, pork, and crackers ; they were obliged to prepare 
their own meals, but some were so hungry that they gnawed 
the raw pork, like beasts of prey. Those who were not 
provided with blankets, shivered through the night, though 
the rain was falling, and the succession of choking coughs 
that ran through the ranks, told how ill they could afford 
the exposure. Major Willard had charge of these men, 
and he sent a young officer to get me admittance to the pen, 
that I might speak with them. 

" Good evening, Major," I said, to the ranking Confed- 
erate officer, and extended my hand. He shook it, embar- 
rassedly, and ran me over with his eye, as if to learn my 
avocation. " Can I obtain any facts from you,'^ I con- 
tinued, '' as to the battle of Hanover ? " 

''Fuh what puhpose?" he said, in his strong southern 
dialect. 

" For publication, sir." 

He sat up at once, and said that he should be happy to 
tell me anything that would not be a violation of military 
honor. I asked him, therefore, the Confederate Command- 
ant at Hanover, the number of brigades, regiments, and 
batteries engaged, the disposition of forces, the character 
of the battle, and the losses, so far as he knew, upon his 
own side. Much of this he revealed, but unguardedly let 



106 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

out other matters, that direct inquir}^ could not have dis- 
covered. I took notes of the legitimate passages, trusting 
to memory for the rest ; and think that 1 possessed his whole 
stock of information, in the course of an hour's manoeu- 
vring. It seemed that General Branch, formerly a member 
of the Federal congress, had been sent with some thousands 
of Carolina troops across the upper Chickahominy, to see 
if it would not be possible to turn the Federal right, and 
cut off one of its brigades ; but a stronger Federal recon- 
noissance had gone northward the day before, and discov- 
ering Branch's camp-fires, sent, during the night, for rein- 
forcements. In the end, the " North State " volunteers were 
routed, their cannon silenced or broken, and seven hundred 
of their number captured. The Federals lost a large num- 
ber of men killed, and the wounded upon both sides, were 
numerous. 

The Confederate Major was of the class referred to in po- 
lite American parlance, as a " blatherskite." He boasted 
after the manner of his fellow-citizens from the county of 
" Bunkum," but nevertheless feared and trembled, to the 
manifest disgust of one of the young Captains. 

" Majuh ! " said this young man, " what you doin' thah ! 
That fellow's makin' notes of all your slack ; keep your 
tongue ! aftah awhile you'll tell the nombah of the feces I 
Don't you s'pose he'll prcnt it all ? " 

The Major had, in fact, been telling me how many regi- 
ments the " old Nawth State, suh," had furnished to the 
** suhvice," and I had the names of some thirty colonels, 
in order. The young Captain gave me a sketch of General 
Branch, and was anxious that I should publish something 
in extenuation of North Carolina valor. 

" We have lost mo' men," said he, " than any otha' Com- 
monwealth ; but these Vuhginians, whose soil, by ! 

suh, we defend suh ! Yes, suh I whose soil we defend ; 
these Vuhginians, stigmatize us as cowads ! We, suh I 
yes suh, ive, that nevah wanted to leave the Union, — ive 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 107 

cowads! Look at ou' blood, suh, ou' blood! That's it, 
by ! look at that I shed on every field of the ole Do- 
minion, — killed, muhdud, captued, crippled ! We cow- 
ads ! I want you prent that ! ^' 

I was able to give each of the officers a drop of whiskey 
from my flask, and I never saw men drink so thirstily. 
Their hands and lips trembled as they took it, and their 
eyes shone like lunacy, as the hot drops sank to the cold 
vitals, and pricked the frozen blood. Mingling with the 
privates, I stirred up some native specimens of patriotism, 
that appeared to be in great doubt as to the causes and ends 
of the war. They were very much in the political condi- 
tion of a short, thick, sententious man, in blue drilling 
breeches, who said — 

" Damn the country ! What's to be done with us? " 
One person said that he enlisted for the honor of his 
family, that " fit in the American Revolution ; " and another 
came out to " hev a squint et the fightin'." Several were 
northern and foreign lads, that were working on Carolina 
railroads, and could not leave the section, and some labored 
under the impression that they were to have a " slice " of 
land and a" nigger," in the event of Southern independence. 
A few comprehended the spirit of the contest, and took up 
arms from principle ; , a few, also, declared their enmity to 
''Yankee institutions," and had seized the occasion to 
" polish them off," and " give them a ropein' in ; " but many 
said it was " dull in our deestreeks, an' the niggers was 
runnin' \^vay, so I thought I'ud jine the feces." The 
great mass said, that they never contemplated ''this box," 
or " this fix," or " these suckemstances," and all wanted the 
war to close, that they might retiirn to their families. 
Indeed, my romantic ideas of rebellion were putblesslj" 
profaned and dissipated. I knew that there was much seK 
fishness, peculation, and '' Kessianism'* in the Federal 
lines, but I had imagined a lofty patriotism, ^ dignified 
purpose, and an inflexible love of personal liberty among- 



108 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

the Confederates. Yet here were men who knew liltle of 
the pnnciples for which they staked their lives ; — who 
enlisted from the commonest motives of convenience, whim, 
pelf, adventure, and foray ; and who repented, after their 
first misfortune, with the salt rheum in their eyes. I tliink 
that all "great uprisings" resolve to this complexion. 
With due reverence for my own ancestry, I think that they 
sometimes stooped from greatness to littleness. I must 
confess that certain admissions in my revolutionary text- 
book are much clearer, now that I have followed a cam- 
paign. And if, as I had proposed, 1 could have witnessed 
the further fortunes of the illustrious Garibaldi, I think that 
some of his compatriots would have been found equally 
inconsistent. Let no man believe that the noblest cause is 
fought out alone by the unerring motives of duty and devo- 
tion. The masses are never so constant. They cannot 
appreciate an abstraction, however divine. A'ny of the 
gentlemen in question would have preferred their biscuit 
and fat pork before the political enfranchisement of the 
whole world ! 

I rode across the fields to the Hogan, Curtis, and Gaines 
mansions ; for some of the wounded had meantime been 
deposited in each of them. All the cow-houses, wagon- 
sheds, hay-barracks, hen-coops, negro cabins, and barns 
were turned into hospitals. The floors were littered with 
"corn-shucks" and fodder; and the maimed, gashed, and 
dying lay confusedh^ together. A few, slightly wounded, 
stood at windows, relating incidents of the battle ; but at 
the doors sentries stood with crossed muskets, to keep out 
idlers and gossips. The mention of my vocation was an 
" open sesame," and^ went unrestrained, into all the larg- 
est hospitals. In the first of these an amputation was being 
performed, and at the door lay a little heap of human fin- 
gers, feet, legs, and arms. I shall not soon forget the 
bare-armed surgeons, with bloody instruments, that leaned 
over the rigid and insensible figure, while the comrades of 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 109 

the subject looked horrifiedly at the scene. The grating of 
the murderous saw drove me into the open air, but in the 
second hospital which I visited, a wounded man had just 
expired, and I encountered his body at the threshold. 
Within, the sickening smell of mortality was almost insup- 
portable, but by degrees I became accustomed to it. The 
lanterns hanging around the room streamed fitfully upon the 
red eyes, and half-naked figures. All were looking up, and 
saying, in pleading monotone: "Is that you, doctor?'^ 
Men with their arms in slings went restlessly up and down, 
smarting with fever. Those who were wounded in the 
lower extremities, body, or head, lay upon their backs, 
tossing even in sleep. They listened peevishly to the wind 
whistling through the chinks of the barn. They followed 
one with their rolling eyes. They turned away from the 
lantern, for it seemed to sear them. Soldiers sat by the 
severely wounded, laving their sores with water. In many 
wounds the balls still remained, and the discolored flesh was 
swollen unnaturally. There were some who had been shot 
in the bowels, and now and then they were frightfully con- 
vulsed, breaking into shrieks and shouts. Some of them 
iterated a single word, as, '' doctor/^ or " help,'' or " God," 
or " oh ! " commencing with a loud spasmodic cry, and con- 
tinuing the same word till it died away in cadence. The 
act of calling seemed to lull the pain. Many v/ere uncon- 
scious and lethargic, moving their fingers and lips mechan- 
ically, but never more to open their eyes upon the light ; 
they were already going through the valley and the shadow. 
I think, still, with a shudder, of the faces of those who were 
told mercifully that they could not live. The unutterable 
agony ; the plea for somebody on whom to call ; the longing 
eyes that poured out prayers ; the looking on mortal as if 
its resources were infinite ; the fearful looking to the immor- 
tal as if it were so far off, so implacable, that the dying 
appeal would be in vain ; the open lips, through which one 
could almost look at the quaking heart below ; the ghastli- 
10 



110 ca:>ipaigns of a nox-combatakt. 

ness of brow and tangled hair ; the closing pangs ; the 
awful quietus. I thought of Parrhasius, in the poem, as I 
looked at these things : — 

" Gods ! 
Could I but paint a dying groan ." 

And how the keen eye of West would have turned from 
the reeking cockpit of the Victory, or the tomb of the Dead 
Man Restored, to this old barn, peopled with horrors. I 
rambled in and out, learning to look at death, studying the 
manifestations of pain, — quivering and sickening at times, 
but plying my avocation, and jotting the names for my 
column of mortalities. 

At eleven o'clock there was music along the high-road, 
and a general rushing from camps. The victorious regi- 
ments were returning from Hanover, under escort, and all 
the bands were pealing national airs. As they turned down 
the fields towards their old encampments, the several brig- 
ades stood under arms to welcome them, and the cheers 
were many and vigorous. But the solemn ambulances still 
followed after, and the red flag of the hospitals flaunted 
bloodily in the blue midnight. 

Both the prisoners and the wounded were removed be- 
tween midnight and morning to White House, and as I had 
despatches to forward by the mail-boat, I rode down in an 
ambulance, that contained six wounded men besides. The 
wounded were to be consigned to hospital boats, and for- 
warded to hospitals in northern cities, and the prisoners 
were to be placed in a transport, under guard, and conveyed 
to Fort Delaware, near Philadelphia. 

Ambulances, it may be said, incidentally, are either two- 
v/heeled or four-wheeled. Two-wheeled ambulances are 
commonly called ''hop, step, and jumps." They are so con- 
structed that the forepart is either very high or very low, 
and may be both at intervals. The wounded occupants may 
be compelled to ride for hours in these carriages, with their 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. Ill 

lieels elevated above their heads, and may finally be shaken 
out, or have their bones broken by the terrible jolting. The 
four-wheeled ambulances are built in shelves, or compart- 
ments, but the wounded are in danger of being smothered in 
them. It was in one o^ these latter that I rode, sitting with 
the driver. We had four horses, but were thrice ''swamped" 
on the road, and had to take out the wounded men once, till 
we could start the wheels. Two of these men were 
wounded in the face, one of them having his nose completely 
severed, and the other having a fragment of his jaw knocked 
out. A third had received a ball among the thews and 
muscles behind his knee, and his whole body appeared to be 
paralyzed. Two were wounded in the shoulders, and the 
sixth was shot in the breast, and was believed to be injured 
inwardly, as he spat blood, and suflered almost the pain of 
death. The ride with these men, over twenty miles of hilly, 
woody country, was like one of Dante's excursions into the 
Shades. In the awful stillness of the dark pines, their 
■ screams frightened the hooting owls, and the whirring 
insects in the leaves and tree-tops quieted their songs. 
They heard the gurgle of the rills, and called aloud for 
water to quench their insatiate thirst. One of them sang a 
shrill, fierce, fiendish ballad, in an interval of relief, but 
plunged, at a sudden relapse, in prayers and curses. We 
heard them groaning to themselves, as we sat in front, and 
one man, it seemed, was quite out of his mind. These were 
the outward manifestations ; but what chords trembled and 
smarted within, we could only guess. What regrets for 
goo^ resolves unfulfilled, and remorse for years misspent, 
made hideous these sore and panting hearts ? The moon- 
light pierced through the thick foliage of the wood, and 
streamed into our faces, like invitations to a better life. 
But the crippled and bleeding could not see or feel it, — 
buried in the shelves of the ambulance. 



CHAPTER XI. 



BALLOOX BATTLES. 



Some days ago, as I was sitting in Central Park, under a 
tree no bigger than Jonah's gourd, broiling nicely brown, 
and seasoning the process by reading what the lesser week- 
lies said about me, I saw at the Park gate a great phantasm, 
like a distended sausage, swaying to and fro as if striving 
to burst, and directly the horrible thing blew upwards, spill- 
ing all the stuffing from the case, 

1 saw in a moment that the apparition was a balloon, and 
that the aeronaut was only emptying ballast. 

Straight toward me the floating vessel came, so close to 
the ground that I could hear the silk crackle and the ropes 
creak, till, directly, a man leaned over the side and 
shouted — 

"Is that you, Townsend ? '^ 

" Hallo, Lowe ! '' 

" I want you to get on your feet and be spry about it: 
we have a literary party here, and wish you to write it up. 
I'll let one bag of ballast go, as we touch the grass, and 
you must leap in simultaneously. Thump ! '' 

Here the car collided with the ground, and in another 
instant, I found quantities of dirt spilled down my back, and 
two or three people lying beneath me. The world slid 
away, and the clouds opened to receive me. Lowe was 
opening a bottle of Heidsick, and three or four gentlemen 
with heads sick were unclosing the petals of their lips to get 
the afternoon dew. 

ril2) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 113 

These were the various critics and fugitive writers of the 
weekly and daily press. They looked as if they wanted to 
put each other over the side of th^ car, but smothered 
their invective at my advent, as if I were so much pearl- 
ash. 

It was just seven o'clock, and the Park lay like a veined 
and mottled blood-stone in the red sunset. The city wilted 
to the littleness of a rare mosaic pin, its glittering" point 
parting the blue scarf of the bay, and the white bosom of 
the ocean swelling afar, all draped with purple clouds like 
golden hair, in which the entangled gems were the sails of 
the white ships. 

I said this aloud, and all the party drew their lead pen- 
cils. They forgot the occasion in my eloquence, and wanted 
to report me. 

Just here, I drew a field-glass from the aeronaut, and re- 
connoitred the streets of the city. To my dismay there was 
nobody visible on Broadway but gentlemen. I called every- 
body's attention to the fact, and it was accounted for on the 
supposition that the late bank forgeries and defalcations, 
growing out of the extravagance of womankind, had 
prompted all the husbands to make of their homes nun- 
neries. 

We observed, however, close by every gentleman, some- 
thing that resembled a black dog with his tail curled over 
his back. 

" Stuff! " said one, " they're hay wagons." 

'' No I " cried Lowe, " they're nothing of the sort ; they 
are waterfalls, and the ladies are, of course, invisible under 
them." 

AVe accepted the explanation, and thought the trip very 
melancholy. No landscape is complete without a woman. 
Very soon we struck the great polar current, and passed 
Ilarlem river ; the foliage of the trees, by some strange 
anomaly, began to ascend towards us, but Lowe caught two 
10* 



114 CAMPAIGNS OF A N OX-COMBATANT. 

or three of the supposed leaves, and they proved to be green- 
backs. 

There was at once a tremendous sensation in the car ; we 
knew that we were on the track of Ketchum and his carpet- 
bag of bank-notes. 

" Is there any reward out ? '' cried Lowe. 

"Not yet!'' 

'* Then we won't pursue him." 

As we slowly drifted to the left, the Hudson shone through 
the trees, and before dusk we swept across Lake Mahopec. 
1 lieard a voice singing to the dip of oars, and had to be held 
down by five men to restrain an involuntary impulse to quit 
my company. 

" Townsend," said Lowe, " have you the copy of that mat- 
ter you printed about me in England ? This is the time to 
call you to account for it. We are two or three miles above 
terra firma, and I might like to drop you for a parachute." 

I felt Lowe's muscle, and knew m^^self secure. Then I 
unrolled the pages, which I fortunately carried with me, 
and told him the following news about himself:, — 

The aeronaut of the Army of the Potomac was Mr. S. T. 
C, Lowe ; he had made seven thousand ascensions, and his 
army companion was invariably either an artist, a corre- 
spondent, or a telegrapher. 

A minute insulated wire reached from the car to head- 
quarters, and McClellan was thus informed of all that could 
be seen within the Confederate works. Sometimes they re- 
mained aloft for hours, making observations with powerful 
glasses, and once or twice the enemy tested their distance 
with shell. 

On the 13th of April, the Confederates sent up a balloon, 
the first they had employed, at v/hich Lowe was infinitely 
amused. He said that it had neither shape nor buoyancy, 
and predicted that it would burst or fall apart after a week. 
It certainly occurred that, after a few fitful appearances, the 
stranger was seen no more, till, on the 28th of June, it 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 115 

floated, like a thing of omen, over the spires of Richmond. 
At that time the Federals were in full retreat, and all the 
acres were covered with their dead. 

On the 11th of April, at five o'clock, an event at once 
amusing and thrilling occurred at our quarters. The com- 
mander-in-chief had appointed his personal and confidential 
friend. General Fitz John Porter, to conduct the siege of 
Yorktown. Porter was a polite, soldierly gentleman, and 
a native of New Hampshire, who had been in the regular 
army since early manhood. He fought gallantly in the 
Mexican war, being thrice promoted and once seriously 
wounded, and he was now forty years of age, — handsome, 
enthusiastic, ambitious, and popular. He made frequent 
ascensions with Lowe, and learned to go aloft alone. One 
day he ascended thrice, and finally seemed as cosily at 
home in the firmament as upon the solid earth. It is need- 
less to say that he grew careless, and on this particular 
morning leaped into the car and demanded the cables to be 
let out with all speed. I saw with some surprise that the 
flurried assistants were sending up the great straining can- 
vas with a single rope attached. The enormous bag was 
onl}^ partially inflated, and the loose folds opened and shut 
v/ith a crack like that of a musket. Noisily, fitfully, the 
yellow mass rose into the sky, the basket rocking like a 
feather in the zephyr ; and just as I turned aside to speak 
to a comrade, a sound came from overhead, like the explo- 
sion of a shell, and something striking me across the face 
laid me flat upon the ground. 

Half blind and stunned, I staggered to my feet, but the 
air seemed full of cries and curses. Opening my eyes rue- 
fully, I saw all faces turned upwards, and when I looked 
above, — the balloon was adrift. 

The treacherous cable, rotted with vitriol, had snapped in 
twain ; one fragment had been the cause of my downfall, 
and the other trailed, like a great entrail, from the receding 
car, where Fitz John Porter was bounding upward upon a 
Peorasus that he could neither check nor direct. 



116 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBAT ANP. 

The whole army was agitated by the unwonted occur- 
rence. From battery No. 1, on the brink of the York, to 
the mouth of Warwick river, every soldier and officer was 
absorbed. Far within the Confederate lines the confusion 
extended. We heard the enemy's alarm-guns, and directly 
the signal flags were waving up and down our front. 

The General appeared directly over the edge of the car. 
He was tossing his hands frightenedly, and shouting some- 
thing that we could not comprehend. 

i' Q — pen — the — valve!'' called Lowe, in his shrill 
tones ; ' ' climb — to — the — netting — and — reach — the 
— valve — rope.'' 

"The valve! — the valve!" repeated a multitude of 
tongues, and all gazed with thrilling interest at the retreat- 
ing hulk that still kept straight upward, swerving neither to 
the east nor the west. 

It was a weird spectacle, — that frail, fading oval, gliding 
against the sky, floating in the serene azure, the little ves- 
sel swinging silently beneath, and a hundred thousand mar- 
tial men watching the loss of their brother in arms, but 
powerless to relieve or recover him. Had Fitz John Porter 
been drifting down the rapids of Niagara, he could not have 
been so far from human assistance. But we saw him di- 
rectly, no bigger than a child's toy, clambering up the net- 
ting and reaching for the cord. 

" He can't do it," muttered a man beside me ; " the wind 
blows the valve-rope to and fro, and only a spry, cool- 
headed fellow can catch it." 

We saw the General descend, and appearing again over 
the edge of the basket, he seemed to be motioning to the 
breathless hordes below, the story of his failure. Then he 
dropped out of sight, and when we next saw him, he was 
reconnoitring the Confederate works through a long black 
spy-glass. A great laugh went up and down the lines as 
this cool procedure was observed, and then a cheer of ap- 
plause ran from group to group. For a moment it was 



CAIklPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 117 

doubtful that the balloon would float in either direction ; it 
seemed to falter, like an irresolute being", and moved reluct- 
antly southeastward, towards Fortress Monroe. A huzza, 
half uttered, quivered on every lip. All eyes glistened, and 
some were dim with tears of joy. But the wayward can- 
vas now turned due westward, and was blown rapidl}^ 
toward the Confederate works. Its course was fitfully di- 
rect, and the wind seemed to veer often, as if contrary cur- 
rents, conscious of the opportunity, were struggling for the 
possession of the daring navigator. The south wind held 
mastery for awhile, and the balloon passed the Federal 
front amid a howl of despair from, the soldiery. - It kept 
right on, over sharpshooters, rifle-pits, and outworks, and 
finally passed, as if to deliver up its freight, directly over 
the heights of Yorktown. The cool courage, either of hero- 
ism or despair, had seized upon Fitz John Porter. He 
turned his black glass upon the ramparts and masked can- 
non below, upon the remote camps, upon the beleaguered 
town, upon the guns of Gloucester Point, and upon distant 
Norfolk. Had he been reconnoitring from a secure perch 
at the tip of the moon, he could not have been more vigi- 
lant, and the Confederates probably thought this some Yan- 
kee device to peer into their sanctuary in despite of ball or 
shell. None of their great guns could be brought to bear 
upon the balloon ; but there were some discharges of mus- 
ketry that appeared to have no effect, and finally even these 
demonstrations ceased. Both armies in solemn silence 
were gazing aloft, while the imperturbable mariner contin- 
ued to spy out the land. 

The sun was now rising behind us, and roseate rays strug- 
gled up to the zenith, like the arcs made by showery 
bombs. They threw a hazy atmosphere upon the balloon, 
and the light shone through the network like the sun 
through the ribs of the skeleton ship in the Ancient Mari- 
ner. Then, as all looked agape, the air-craft "plunged, 
and tacked, and veered/' and drifted rapidly toward the 
Federal lines again. 



118 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COIVIBATANT. 

The allelujah that now went up shook the spheres, and 
when he had regained our camp limits, the General was 
seen clambering up again to clutch the valve-rope. This 
time he was successful, and the balloon fell like a stone, so 
that all hearts once more leaped up, and the cheers were 
hushed. Cavalry rode pell-mell from several directions, to 
reach the place of descent, and the General's personal staff 
galloped past me like the wind, to be the first at his de- 
barkation. I followed the throng of soldiery with due 
haste, and came up to the horsemen in a few minutes. The 
balloon had struck a canvas tent with great violence, felling 
it as by a bolt, and the General, unharmed, had disentan- 
gled himself from innumerable folds of oiled canvas, and 
was now the cynosure of an immense group of people. 
While the officers shook his hands, the rabble bawled their 
satisfaction in hurrahs, and a band of music marching up di- 
rectly, the throng on foot and horse gave him a vociferous 
escort to his quarters. 

Five miles east of Richmond, in the middle of May, we 
found the balloon already partially inflated, resting behind a 
ploughed hill that formed one of a ridge or chain of hills, 
bordering the Chickahominy. The stream was only a half- 
mile distant, but the balloon was sheltered from observation 
by reason of its position in the hollow. 

Heretofore the ascensions had been made from remote 
places, for there was good reason to believe that batteries 
lined the opposite hills ; but now, for the first time, Lowe 
intended to make an ascent whereby he could look into 
Richmond, count the forts encirling it, and note the number 
and position of the camps that intervened. The balloon 
was named the '' Constitution," and looked like a semi- 
distended boa-constrictor, as it flapped with a jerking sound, 
and shook its oiled and painted folds. It was anchored to 
the ground by stout ropes affixed to stakes, and also by 
sand-bags which hooked to its netting. The basket lay 
alongside ; the generators were contained in blue wooden 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMDATANT. 119 

wagons, marked '' U. S. ; '^ and the gas was fed to the bal- 
loon through rubber and metallic pipes. A tent or two, a 
quantity of vitriol in green and wicker carboys, some 
horses and transportation teams, and several men that 
assisted the inflation, were the only objects to be remarked. 
As some time was to transpire before the arrangements were 
completed, I resorted to one of the tents and took a com- 
fortable nap. The " Professor '' aroused me at three o'clock, 
when I found the canvas straining its bonds, and emitting a 
hollow sound, as of escaping gas. The basket was made 
fast directly, the telescopes tossed into place ; the Professor 
climbed to the side, holding by the network ; and I coiled 
up in a rope at the bottom. 

" Stand by your cables, '^ he said, and the bags of ballast 
were at once cut away. Twelve men took each a rope in 
hand, and played out slowly, letting us glide gently upward. 
The earth seemed to be falling away, and we poised motion- 
less in the blue ether. The tree-tops sank downward, the 
hills dropped noiselessly through space, and directly the 
Chickahominy was visible beyond us, winding like a ribbon 
of silver through the ridgy landscape. 

Far and wide stretched the Federal camps. We saw 
faces turned upwards gazing at our ascent, and heard 
clearly, as in a vacuum, the voices of soldiers. At every 
second the prospect widened, the belt of horizon enlarged, 
remote farmhouses came in view ; the earth was like a per- 
fectly flat surface, painted with blue woods, and streaked 
with pictures of roads, fields, fences, and streams. As we 
climbed higher, the river seemed directly beneath us, the 
farms on the opposite bank were plainly discernible, and 
Richmond lay only a little way off, enthroned on its many 
hills, with the James stretching white and sinuous from its 
feet to the horizon. We could see the streets, the suburbs, 
the bridges, the outlaying roads, nay, the moving masses 
of people. The Capitol sat white and colossal on Shockoe 
Hill, the dingy buildings of the Tredegar works blackened 



120 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATANT. 

the river-side above, the hovels of rockets clustered at the 
hither limits, and one by one we made out familiar hotels, 
public edifices, and vicinities. The fortifications were 
revealed in part only, for they took the hue of the soil, and 
blended with it ; but many camps were plainly discernible, 
and by means of the glasses we separated tent from tent, 
and hut from hut. The Confederates were seen running to 
the cover of the woods, that we might not discover their 
numbers, but we knew the location of their camp-fires by 
the smoke that curled toward us. 

A panorama so beautiful would have been rare at any 
time, but this was thrice interesting from its past and coming 
associations. Across those plains the hordes at our feet 
were either to advance victoriously, or be driven eastward 
with dusty banners and dripping hands. Those white farm- 
houses were to be receptacles for the groaning and the 
mangled ; thousands were to be received beneath the turf 
of those pasture fields ; and no rod of ground on any side, 
should not, sooner or later, smoke with the blood of the 
slain. 

" Guess I got 'em now, jest where I want 'em,'' said 
Lowe, with a gratified laugh ; ''jest keep still as you mind 
to, and squint your eye through my glass, while I make a 
sketch of the roads and the country. Hold hard there, and 
anchor fast ! " he screamed to the people below. Then he 
fell imperturbably to work, sweeping the country with 
his hawk-eye, and escaping nothing that could contribute 
to the completeness of his jotting. 

We had been but a few minutes thus poised, when close 
below, from the edge of a timber stretch, puffed a volume 
of white smoke. A second afterward, the air quivered with 
the peal of a cannon. A third, and we heard the splitting 
shriek of a shell, that passed a little to our left, but in exact 
range, and burst beyond us in the ploughed field, heaving 
up the clay as it exploded. 

*' Ha ! '^ said Lowe, " they have got us foul ! Haul in the 
cables — quick I " he shouted, in a fierce tone. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 121 

At the same instant, the puff, the report, and the shriek 
were repeated ; but this time the shell burst to our right in 
mid-air, and scattered fragments around and below us. 

" Another shot will do oar business,^' said Lowe, between 
his teeth; *'it isn't a mile, and they have got the range.'' 

Again the puff and the whizzing' shock. I closed my 
eyes, and held my breath hard. The explosion was so close, 
that the pieces of shell seemed driven across my face, and 
my ears quivered with the sound. I looked at Lowe, to see 
if he was struck. He had sprung to his feet, and clutched 
the cordage frantically. 

" Are you pulling in there, you men ? " he bellowed, with 
a loud imprecation. 

'* Puf! bang I whiz-z-z-z ! splutter ! " broke a third shell, 
and my heart was wedged in my throat. 

I saw at a glimpse the whole bright landscape again. I 
heard the voices of soldiers below, and saw them running 
across fields, fences, and ditches, to reach our anchorage. 
I saw some drummer-boys digging in the field beneath for 
one of the buried shells. I saw the waving of signal flags, 
the commotion through the camps, — ojfficers galloping their 
horses, teamsters whipping their mules, regiments turning 
out, drums beaten, and batteries limbered up. I remarked, 
last of all, the site of the battery that alarmed us, and, by 
a strange sharpness of sight and sense, believed that I saw 
the gunners sv/abbing, ramming, and aiming the pieces. 

" Puff I bang I whiz-z-z-z I splutter ! crash 1 " 

"Puff! bang! whiz-z-z-z! splutter! crash!" 

"My God! " said Lowe, hissing the words slowly and 
terribly, " tliey have opened upon us from another battery 1 " 

The scene seemed to dissolve. A cold dew broke from 
my forehead. I grew blind and deaf I had fainted. 

" Pitch some water in his face," said somebody. "He 
ain't used to it. Hallo ! there he comes to." 

I staggered to my feet. There must have been a thousand 
men about us. They were looking curiously at the 
31 



122 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-CO:.IBATANT. 

aeronaut and me. The balloon lay fuming and struggling 
on the clods. 

^' Three cheers for the Union bal-loon!" called a little 
fellow at my side. 

" Hip, hip — hoorooar ! hoorooar ! hoomoar ! '' 

" Tiger-r-r — yah ! whoop ! '' 



CHAPTER XII. 

SEVEN PINES AND FAIROAKS. 

Returning from White House on Saturday, May 29, I 
heard the cannon of " Seven Pines/' The roar of artillery 
came faintly upon the ear in the dells and woods, but in the 
open stretches of country, or from cleared hill-tops, I could 
hear also the volleys of musketry. It was the battle sound 
that assured me of bloody work ; for the musket, as I had 
learned by experience, was the only certain signification of 
battle. It is seldom brought into requisition but at close 
quarters, when results are intended ; whereas, cannon 
may peal for a fortnight, and involve no other destruction 
than that of shell and powder. I do not think that any 
throb of my heart was unattended by some volley or dis- 
charge. Dull, hoarse, uninterrupted, the whole afternoon 
was shaken by the sound. It was with a shudder that I 
thought how every peal announced flesh and bone riven 
asunder. The country people, on the way, stood in their 
side yards, anxiously listening. Riders or teamsters com- 
ing from the field, were beset with inquiries ; but in the 
main they knew nothing. As I stopped at Daker's for din- 
ner, the concussion of the battle rattled our plates, and the 
girls entirely lost their appetites, so that G-lumley, who lis- 
tened and speculated, observed that the baby face was 
losing all the lines of art, and was quite flat and faded in 
color. Resuming our way, we encountered a sallow, shab- 
by person, driving a covered wagon, who recognized me 

(123) 



124 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-CO.AIBATANT. 

at once. It was the "Doctor'^ who had lightened the 
journey down the Chesapeake, by a discourse upon em- 
balming. He pointed toward the field with a long bony 
finger, and called aloud, with a smirk upon his face — 

" I have the apparatus here, you see. They will need 
me out yonder, you knov/. There's opportunity there for 
the development of the * system.' '' 

I did not reach my own camp at Gaines's Farm, till late 
in the day. The firing had almost entirely ceased, but 
occasional discharges still broke the repose of evening, 
and at night signal rockets hissed and showered in every 
direction. Next day the contest recommenced ; but although 
not farther in a direct line, than seven miles, from our en- 
campment, I could not cross the Chickahominy, and was 
compelled to lie in my tent all day. 

These two battles were offered by the Confederates, in the 
hope of capturing-that portion of the Federal army that lay 
upon the Richmond side of the river. Some days previ- 
ously, McClellan had ordered Keyes's corps, consisting of 
perhaps twelve thousand men, to cross Bottom Bridge, 
eight miles down the Chickahominy, and occupy an ad- 
vanced position on the York River railroad, six miles east 
of Richmond. Keyes's two divisions, commanded by Gen- 
erals Couch and Casey, were thus encamped in a belt of 
woods remote from the body of the army, and little more 
than a mile from the enemy's line. Heintzelman's corps 
was lying at the Bridge, several miles in their rear, and the 
three finest corps in the army were separated from them by 
a broad, rapid river, which could be crossed at two places 
only. The troops of Keyes were mainly inexperienced, 
undisciplined volunteers from the Middle States. When 
their adversaries advanced, therefore, in force, on the twen- 
ty-ninth instant, they made a fitful, irregular resistance, and 
at evening retired in panic and disorder. The victorious 
enemy followed them so closely, that many of the Federals 
were slain in their tents. During that night, the Chicka- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A XOK-CO:.lBATANT. 125 

hominy, swollen by rains, overflowed its banks, and swept 
away the bridges. The beaten and disorganized relic of the 
fight of Seven Pines,'' was thus completely isolated, and 
apparently to be annihilated at daybreak. But during the 
night, twenty thousand fresh men of Sumner's corps, ford- 
ed the river, carrying their artillery, piece by piece across, 
and at dawn they assumed the offensive, seconded by the 
encouraged columns of Keyes. The fight was one of despe- 
ration ; at night the Federals reoccupied their old ground 
at Fairoaks, and the Confederates retired, leaving their dead 
and wounded on the field. They lost, among their prison- 
ers. General Pettigrew, of South Carolina, who was severely 
wounded, and with whom I talked as he lay in bed at 
Gaines's Mansion. He appeared to be a chivalrous, gos- 
sipy old gentleman, and said that he was the last South 
Carolinian to stand by the Union. 

On the succeeding day, Monday, June 2, I rode to " Grape- 
Vine Bridge," and attempted to force my horse through 
the swamp and stream ; but the drowned mules that momen- 
tarily floated down the current, admonished me of the 
folly of the hazard. The bridge itself was a swimming 
mass of poles and logs, that yielded with every pressure ; 
yet I saw many wounded men, who waded through the 
water, or stepped lightly from log to log, and so gained the 
shore, wet from head to foot. Long lines of supply teams 
and ambulances* were wedged in the depth of the thick 
wood, bordering the river ; but so narrow were the cordu- 
roy approaches to the bridge, and so fathomless the swamp 
on either hand, that they could neither go forward, nor 
return. The straggling troops brought the unwelcome in- 
telligence, that their comrades on the other side were starv- 
ing, as they had crossed with a single ration of food, and 
had long ago eaten their last morsels. While I was stand- 
ing close by the bridge. General McClellan, and stall", rode 
through the swamp, and attempted to make the passage. 
The " young Napoleon," urged his horse upon the floating 
11* 



126 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

timber, and at once sank over neck and saddle. His staff 
dashed after him, floundering in the same way ; and when 
they had splashed and shouted, till I believed them all 
drowned, they turned and came to shore, dripping and dis- 
comfited. There was another Napoleon, who, I am in- 
formed, slid down the Alps into Italy ; the present descend- 
ant did not slide so far, and he shook himself, after the 
manner of a dog. I remarked with some surprise, that he 
was growing obese ; whereas, the active labors of the cam- 
paign had reduced the dimensions of most of the Gen- 
erals. 

I secured my horse, and placed a drummer-boy beside him, 
to prevent abduction or mistake ; then stripping from top 
to toe, and holding my garments above my head, I essayed 
the difficult passage ; as a commencement, I dropped my 
watch, but the guard-hook caught in a log and held it fast. 
Afterward, I slipped from the smooth butt of a tree, and 
thoroughly soused myself and clothing ; a lumber-man from 
Maine, beheld my ill luck, and kindly took my burden to 
the other side. An estuary of the Chickahominy again 
intervened, but a rough scow floated upon it, which the Cap- 
tain of Engineers sent for me, with a soldier to man the 
oars. I neglected to " trim boat," I am sorry to add, 
although admonished to that effect repeatedly by the mari- 
ner ; and we swamped in four feet of water. I resembled 
a being of one of the antediluvian eras, when I came to land, 
finally, and might have been taken for a slimy Iguanodon. 
I sacrificed some of my under clothing to the process of 
cleansing and drying, and so started with soaking boots, 
and a deficiency of dress, in the direction of Savage's. 
Passing the ''bottom,'' or swamp-land, I ascended a hill, 
and following a lane, stopped after a half hour at a frame- 
mansion, unpainted, with some barns and negro-quarters 
contiguous, and a fine grove of young oaks, shading the 
porch. An elderly gentleman sat in the porch, sipping a 
julep, with his feet upon the railing, and conversing with a 



CAMP^UGNS OF A NON-COMB AT AIN'T. 127 

stout, ruddy officer, of decidedly Milesian physiognomy. 
When I approached, the latter hurriedly placed a chair be- 
tween himself and me, and said, with a stare — 

'' Bloodanowns ! And where have ye been ? Among the 
hogs, I think V^ I assured him that I did not intend to 
come to close quarters, and that it would be no object on 
my part to contaminate him. The old gentleman called for 
"William,^' a tall, consumptive servant, whose walk reminded 
me of a stubborn convict's, in the treadmill, and ordered 
him to scrape me, which was done, accordingly, with a case- 
knife. The young officer proposed to dip me in the well 
and wring me well out, but I demurred, mainly on the 
ground that some time would be so consumed, and that my 
horse was waiting on the other side. He at once said that 
he would send for it, and called " Pat," a civilian servant, in 
military blue, who was nursing a negro baby with an eye, it 
seemed, to obtain favor with the mother. The willingness 
of the man surprised me, but he said that it was a short cut 
of four miles to the railroad bridge, which had been repaired 
and floored, and that he could readily recover the animal 
and return at three o'clock. My benefactor, the officer, 
then mixed a julep, which brought a comfortable glow to 
my face, and said, without parley — 

" You're a reporter, on the '^ 

He said further, that he had been Coroner's Surgeon in 
New York for many years, and had learned to know the 
representatives of newspapers, one from the other, by 
generic manner and appearance. Three correspondents 
rode by at the time, neither of whom he knew person- 
ally, but designated them promptly, with their precise con- 
nections. In short, we became familiar directly, and he told 
me that his name was O'Gamlon, Quartermaster of Meagher's 
Irish brigade, Sumner's corps. He was established with 
the elderly gentleman, — whose name was Michie, — and 
had two horses in the stable, at hand. He proposed to send 
me to the field, with a note of introduction to the General, 



128 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

and another to Colonel Baker, of the New York 88th 
(Irish); who could show me the lines and relics of battle, 
and give me the lists of killed, wounded, and missing. I 
repaired to his room, and arrayed myself in a fatigue officer's 
suit, with clean underclothing, after which, descending, I 
climbed into his saddle, and dashed off, with a mettlesome, 
dapper pony. The railroad track was about a mile from 
the house, and the whole country, hereabout, was sappy, 
dank, and almost barren. Scrub pines covered much of the 
soil, and the cleared fields were dotted with charred stumps. 
The houses were small and rude ; the wild pigs ran like deer 
through the bushes and across my path ; vultures sailed by 
hundreds between me and the sky ; the lane was slippery 
and wound about slimy pools ; the tree-tops, in many places, 
were splintered by ball and shell. I crossed the railroad, 
cut by a high bridge, and saw below the depot, at Savage's, 
now the head-quarters of General Heintzelman. Above, in 
full view, were the commands at Peach Orchard and Fair- 
oaks, and to the south, a few furlongs distant, the AVilliams- 
burg and Richmond turnpike ran, parallel with the railway, 
toward the field of Seven Pines. The latter site, was 
simply the junction of the turnpike with a roundabout way 
to Richmond, called the " Nine Mile Road," and Fairoaks 
was the junction of the diverging road with the railroad. 
Toward the latter I proceeded, and soon came to the Irish 
brigade, located on both sides of the way, at Peach Orchard. 
They occupied the site of the most desperate fight- 

A small farm hollowed in the swampy thicket and wood, 
was here divided by the track, and a little farm-house, with 
a barn, granary, and a couple of cabins, lay on the left side. 
In a hut to the right General Thomas Francis Meagher made 
his head-quarters, and a little beyond, in the edges of the 
swamp timber, lay his four regiments, under arms. 

A guard admonished me, in curt, lithe speech, that my 
horse must come no further ; for the brigade held the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 129 

advance post, and I was even now within easy musket 
range of the imperceptible enemy. An Irish boy volun- 
teered to hold the rein, while I paid my respects to the Com- 
mander. I encountered him on the threshold of the hut, 
and he welcomed me in the richest and most musical of 
brogues. Large, corpulent, and powerful of body ; plump 
and ruddy — or as some would say, bloated — of face ; with 
resolute mouth and heavy animal jaws ; expressive nose, 
and piercing blue-eyes ; brov/n hair, mustache, and eye- 
brows ; a fair forehead, and short sinewy neck, a man of 
apparently thirty years of age, stood in the doorway, smok- 
ing- a cigar, and trotting his sword fretfully in the scabbard. 
He wore the regulation blue cap, but trimmed plentifully 
with gold lace, and his sleeves were slashed in the same 
manner. A star glistened in his oblong shoulder-bar ; a 
delicate gold cord seamed his breeches from his Hessian 
boots to his red tasselled sword-sash ; a seal-ring shone from 
the hand with which he grasped his gauntlets, and his spurs 
were set upon small aristocratic feet. 

A tolerable physiognomist would have resolved his tem- 
perament to an intense sanguine. He was fitfully impulsive, 
as all his movements attested, and liable to fluctuations of 
peevishness, melancholy, and enthusiasm. This was 
" Meagher of the Sword," the stripling who made issue 
with the renowned O'Connell, and divided his applauses ; the 
''revolutionist,'^ who had outlived exile to become the 
darling of the ''Young Ireland'' populace in his adopted 
country ; the partisan, whose fierce, impassioned oratory 
had wheeled his factious element of the Democrac}^ into the 
war cause ; and the soldier, whose gallant bearing at Bull 
Run had won him a brigadiership. He was, to my mind, a 
realization of the Knight of Gwynne, or any of the rash, 
impolitic, poetic personages in Lever and Griffin. Ambitious 
without a name ; an adventurer without a definite cause ; 
an orator without policy ; a General without caution or 
experience, he had led the Irish brigade through the hottest 



130 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB AT AXT. 

battles, and associated them with the most brilliant episodes 
of the war. 

Every adjunct of the place was strictly Hibernian. The 
emerald green standard entwined with the red, white, and 
blue ; the gilt eagles on the flag-poles held the Shamrock 
sprig in their beaks ; the soldiers lounging on guard, had 
'' 69 '^ or " 88 '^ the numbers of their regiments, stamped 
on a green hat-band ; the brogue of every county from 
Down to Wexford fell upon the ear ; one might have sup- 
posed that the '' year '98 " had been revived, and that these 
brawny Celts were again afield against their Saxon country- 
men. The class of lads upon the staff of Meagher, was an 
odd contrast to the mass of staff oflScers in the ''Grand 
Army.'' Fox-hunters they all seemed to me, and there was 
one, who wore a long, twisted, pomatumed moustache, who 
talked of steeple chases, all the while, and wanted to have 
" a healthy dash " of some kind. A class of Irish exquisites, 
they appeared to be, — good for a fight, a card-party, or a 
hurdle jumping, — but entirely too Quixotic for the sober 
requirements of Yankee warfare. When anything absurd, 
forlorn, or desperate was to be attempted, the Irish brigade 
was called upon. But, ordinarily, they were regarded, as a 
party of mad fellows, more ornamental than useful, and en- 
tirely too clannish and factious to be entrusted with power. 
Meagher himself seemed to be less erratic than his subordi- 
nates ; for he had married a New York lady, and had learned, 
by observation, the superiority of the pelfish, plodding 
native before his own fitful, impracticable race. His ad- 
dress was infatuating : but there was a certain airiness, 
indicative of vanity, that revealed his great characteristic. 
He loved applause, and to obtain it had frittered away his 
fine abilities, upon petty, splendid, momentary triumphs. 
He was generous to folly, and, I have no doubt, maintained 
his whole staff. 

When I requested to be shown the field, and its relics, 
Meagher said, in his musical brogue, that I need only look 
around. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 131 

"From the edge of that wood/^ he said, "the Irish 
brigade charged across this field, and fell upon their faces in 
the railway cutting below. A regiment of Alabamians lay 
in the timber beyond, with other Southerners in their rear, 
and on both flanks. They thought that we were charging 
bayonets, and reserved their fire till we should approach 
within butchering distance. On the contrary, I ordered the 
boys to lie down, and load and fire at will. In the end, sir, 
we cut them to pieces, and five hundred of them were left 
along the swamp fence, that you see. There isn't fifty 
killed and wounded in the whole Irish brigade. '' 

A young staff officer took me over the field. We visited 
first the cottage and barns across the road, and found the 
house occupied by some thirty wounded Federals. They 
lay in their blankets upon the floors, — pale, helpless, hollow- 
eyed, making low moans at every breath. Two or three 
were feverishly sleeping, and, as the flies revelled upon their 
gashes, they stirred uneasily and moved their hands to and 
fro. By the flatness of the covering at the extremities, I 
could see that several had only stumps of legs. They 
had lost the sweet enjoyment of walking afield, and were 
but fragments of men, to limp forever through a painful life. 
Such wrecks of power I never beheld. Broad, brawny, 
buoyant, a few hours ago, the loss of blood, and the nervous 
shock, attendant upon amputation, has wellnigh drained 
them to the last drop'. Their faces were as white as the 
tidy ceiling ; they were whining like babies ; and only their 
rolling eyes distinguished them from mutilated corpses. 
Some seemed quite broken in spirit, and one, who could 
speak, observing my pitiful glances toward his severed thigh, 
drew up his mouth and chin, and wept as if with the loss 
of comeliness all his ambitions were frustrated. A few at- 
tendants were brushing ofi" the insects with boughs of cedar, 
laving the sores, or administering cooling draughts. The 
second story of the dwelling was likewise occupied by 
wounded, but in a corner clustered the terrified farmer 



132 campaig:xs of a non-co^ibatant. 

and his family^ vainly attempting to turn their eyes from 
the horrible spectacle. The farmer's wife had a baby 
at her breast, and its little blue eyes were straying over 
the room, half wonderingly, half delightedly. I thought, 
with a shudder, of babyhood thus surrounded, and how, 
in the long future, its first recollections of existence should 
be of booming guns and dying soldiers 1 The cow-shed 
contained seven corpses, scarcely yet cold, lying upon their 
backs, in a row, and fast losing all resemblance to man. 
The fartliest removed, seemed to be a diminutive boy, and I 
thought if he had a mother, that she might sometime like to 
speak with me. When I took their names, I thought v/hat 
terrible agencies I was fulfilling. Beyond my record, falsely 
spelled, perhaps, they would have no history. And people 
call such deaths glorious ! 

Upon a pile of lumber and some heaps of fence-rails, close 
by, sat some dozens of wounded men, mainly Federals, with 
bandaged arms and faces, and torn clothing. There was 
one, shot in the foot, who howled at every eflort to remove 
his boot ; the blood leaked from a rent in the side, and at 
last, the leather was cut, piecemeal from the flesh. These 
ate voraciously, though in pain and fear ; for a little soup 
and meat was being doled out to them. 

The most horrible of all these scenes — which I have 
described perhaps too circumstantially — was presented in 
the stable or barn, on the premises', where a bare dingy 
floor — the planks of which tilted and shook, as one made 
his way over them — was strev/n with suffering people. 
Just at the entrance sat a boy, totally blind, both eyes 
having been torn out by a minnie-ball, and the entire bridge 
of the nose shot away. He crouched against the gable, in 
darkness and agony, tremulously fingering his knees. 
Near at hand, sat another, who had been shot through the 
middle of the forehead, but singular to relate, he still lived, 
though lunatic, and evidently beyond hope. Death had 
drawn blue and yellow circles beneath his eyes, and he mut- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATA^T. 133 

tered incomprehensibly, wagging his head. Two men, per- 
fectly naked, lay in the middle of the place, wounded in 
bowels and loins ; and at a niche in the weather-boarding", 
where some pale light peeped in, four mutilated wretches 
were gaming with cards. I was now led a little way down 
the railroad, to see the Confederates. The rain began to 
fLill at this time, and the poor fellows shut their eyes to 
avoid the pelting of the drops. There was no shelter for 
them within a mile, and the mud absolutely reached half 
way up their bodies. Nearly one third had suffered ampu- 
tation above the knee. There were about thirty at this 
spot, and I was told that they were being taken to Meadow 
Station on hand cars. As soon as the locomotive could pass 
the Chickahominy, they would be removed to White House, 
and comfortably quartered in the Sanitary and hospital 
boats. Some of them were fine, athletic, and youthful, and 
I was directed to one who had been married only three days 
before. 

''Doctor,'' said one, feebly, ''I feel very cold: do you 
think that this is death ? It seems to be creeping to my 
heart. I have no feeling in my feet, and my thighs are 
numb.'' 

A Federal soldier came along with a bucket of soup, and 
proceeded to fill the canteens and plates. He appeared to 
be a relative of Mark Tapley, and possessed much of that 
estimable person's jollity — 

''Come, pardner," he said, "drink yer sup! now, old 
boy, this'ill warm ye ; sock it dov^^n and ye'll see yer sweet- 
heart soon. You dead, Ally-bammy? Go way, now. 
You'll live a hundred years, you will. That's wot you'll 
do. Won't he, lad? What? Not any? Get out! 
You'll be slap on your legs next week and hev another shot 
at me the week a'ter that. You know you will ! Oh I you 
Rebil ! You, w^th the butternut trousers ! Say ! Wake 
up and take some o' this. Hello ! lad, pardner. Wake up ! " 

He stirred him gently with his foot ; he bent down to 
12 



134 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

touch his face. A grimness came over his merriment. The 
man was stiff and dumb. 

Colonel Baker, commanding the 88th New York, was a 
tall, martial Irishman, who opened his heart and bottle at 
the same welcome, and took me into the woods, where some 
of the slain still remained. He had slept not longer than 
an hour, continuously, for seventy hours, and during the 
past night had been called up by eight alarums. His men 
lay in the dark thickets, without fires or blankets, as they 
had crossed the Chickahominy in light marching order. 

^' Many a lad,'^ said he, " will escape the bullet for a lin- 
gering consumption. '' 

We had proceeded but a very little way, when we came 
to a trodden place beneath the pines, where a scalp lay in 
the leaves, and the imprint of a body was plainly visible. 
The bayonet scabbard lay at one sidej the canteen at the 
other. We saw no corpses, however, as fatigue parties had 
been bur^dng the slain, and the whole wood was dotted with 
heaps of clay, where the dead slept below in the oozy 
trenches. Quantities of cartridges were scattered here and 
there, dropped by the retreating Confederates. Some of 
the cartridge-pouches that I examined were completely 
filled, showing that their possessors had not fired a single 
round ; others had but one cartridge missing. There were 
fragments of clothing, hair, blankets, murderous bowie and 
dirk knives, spurs, flasks, caps, and plumes, dropped all the 
way through the thicket, and the trees on every hand were 
riddled with balls. I came upon a squirrel, unwittingly 
shot during the fight. Not those alone who make the war 
must feel the war ! At one of the mounds the burying party 
had just completed their work, and the men were throwing 
the last clods upon the remains. They had dug pits of not 
more than two feet depth, and dragged the bodies heedlessly 
to the edges, whence they were toppled down and scantily 
covered. Much of the interring had been done by night, and 
the flare of lanterns upon the discolored faces and dead eyes 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 135 

must have been hideously effective. The grave-diggers, how- 
ever, were practical personages, and had probably little care 
for dramatic effects. They leaned upon their spades, when, 
the rites were finished, and a large, dry person, who appeared 
to be privileged upon all occasions, said, grinningly — 

. " Colonel, your honor, them boys 'ill niver stand forninst 
the Irishbrigade again. If they'd ha' known it was us, sur, 
begorra ! they 'ud ha' brought coffins wid 'em." 

''No, niver!" "They got their ticket for soup!" 
'' We kivered them, fait', will inough ! " shouted the other 
grave-diggers." 

*'Do ye belave, Colonel," said the dry person, again, 
" that thim ribals'll lave us a chance to catch them. Be 
me sowl I I'm jist wishin to war-rum me hands wid rifle 
practice." 

The others echoed loudly, that they were anxious to be 
ordered up, and some said that " Little Mac'll give 'em his 
big whack now." The presence of death seemed to have 
added no fear of death to these people. Having tasted 
blood, they now thirsted for it, and I asked myself, fore- 
bodingly, if a return to civil life would find them less fero- 
cious. 

1 dined with Colonel Owen of the 69th Pennsylvania (Irish) 
volunteers. He had been a Philadelphia lawyer, and was, by 
all odds, the most consistent and intelligent soldier in the brig- 
ade. He had been also a schoolmaster for many years, but 
appeared to be in his element at the head of a regiment, 
and was generally admitted to be an efficient officer. He 
shared the prevailing antipathy to West Point graduates ; 
for at this time the arrogance of the regular officers, and 
the pride of the volunteers, had embittered each against the 
other. His theory of military education was, the establish- 
ment of State institutions, and the reorganization of citizen- 
ship upon a strict militia basis. After dinner, I rode to '' Seven 
Pines," and examined some of the rifle pits used during the 
engagement. A portion of this ground only had been retaken, 



136 ca:\ipaigns of a kon-combatant. 

and I was warned to keep under cover ; for sharpshooters lay 
close by, in the underbrush. A visit to the graves of some 
Federal soldiers completed the inspection. Some of the 
regiments had interred their dead in trenches ; but the New 
Englanders v/ere all buried separately, and smooth slabs 
were driven at the heads of the mounds, whereon were 
inscribed the names and ages of the deceased. Some of the 
graves were freshly sodded, and enclosed by rails and logs. 
They evidenced the orderly, religious habits of the sons of 
the Puritans ; for, with all his hardness of manner and selfish- 
ness of purpose, I am inclined to think that the Yankee is 
the best manifestation of Northern character. He loves his 
home, at least, and he reveres his deceased comrades. 

When I returned to Michie's, at six o'clock, the man 
''Pat,'^ with a glowing face, came out to the gate. 

" That's a splendid baste of yours, sur," he said, — " and 
sich a boi to gallop." 

"My horse doesn't generally gallop, '^ I returned, doubt- 
fully. 

When I passed to the barn in the rear, I found to my 
astonishment, a sorrel stallion, magnificently accoutred. 
lie thrust his foot at me savagely, as I stood behind him, 
and neighed till he frightened the spiders. 

"Pat," said I, wrathfuUy, "you have stolen some Col- 
onel's nag, and I shall be hanged for the theft." 

"Fait, sur," said Pat, "my ligs was gone intirely, wid 
long walkin', and I sazed the furst iligant baste I come to." 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



STUARTS RAID. 



The old Chickaliominy bridges were soon repaired, aud 
the whole of Franklin's corps crossed to the south side. 
McClellan moved his head-quarters to Dr. Trent's farm, a 
half-mile from Michie's, and the latter gentleman's fields 
and lawn were made white with tents. Among others, the 
Chief of Cavalry, Stoneman, pitched his canopy under the 
young oaks, and the whole reserve artillery was parked in 
the woods, close to the house. The engineer brigade en- 
camped in the adjacent peach-orchard and corn-field, and 
the wheat- was trampled by battery and team-horses. 
Smith's division now occupied the hills on the south side of 
the Chickahominy, and the Federal line stretched south- 
eastward, through Fairoaks, to White Oak Swamp, seven 
miles away. Porter's corps still lay between Mechanics- 
ville and New Bridge, on the north bank of the river, and 
my old acquaintances, the Pennsjdvania Reserves, had 
joined the army, and now formed its extreme right wing. 
This odd arrangement of forces was a subject of frequent 
comment : for the right was thus four miles, and the left 
fourteen miles, from Richmond. The four corps at once 
commenced to entrench, and from Smith's redoubt on the 
river bluffs, to Casey's entrenched hill at White Oak, a con- 
tinuous line of moderately strong earthworks extended. 
But Porter and the Reserves were not entrenched at all, 
and only a few horsemen were picketed across the long reach 
12* (137) 



138 , CAMPAIUNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

of country from Meadow Bridge to Hanover Court House. 
Both flanks, in fact, were open, and the left was a day^s 
march from the right. We were, meantime, drawing our 
supplies from White House, twenty miles in the rear ; there 
were no railroad guards along the entire line, and about 
five companies protected the grand depot. Two gunboats 
lay in the river, however, and as the teams still went to and 
fro, a second depot was established at a place called Put- 
ney's or " Garlic,'' five miles above White House. I went 
often, and at all hours of the day and night, over this ex- 
posed and lonely route. My horse had been, meantime, re- 
turned to the Provost Quarters, and the rightful owner had 
obtained his stallion in exchange. I rode the said stallion 
but once, when he proceeded to walk sideways, and several 
times rivalled the renowned Pegasus in his aerial flights. 
The man named " Pat " essayed to show his paces one day, 
but the stallion took him straight into Stoneman's wall-tent, 
and that officer shook the Irishman blind. My little bob- 
tailed brownie was thrice endeared to me by our separation ; 
but I warned the man " Pat " to keep clear of him there- 
after. The man " Pat" was a very eccentric person, who 
slept on the porch at Michie's, and used to wake up the 
house in the small hours, with the story that somebody was 
taking the chickens and the horses. He was the most im- 
pulsive person that I ever knew, and when I entrusted de- 
spatches to him once, he put them on the hospital boat by 
mistake, and they got to New York at the close of the cam- 
paign. '' 

Michie's soon became a correspondents' rendezvous, and 
we have had at one time, at dinner, twelve representatives 
of five journals. The Hon. Henry J. Kaymond, Ex-Lieuten- 
ant Governor of New York, and proprietor of the Times 
newspaper, was one of our family for several weeks. He 
had been a New Hampshire lad, and, strolling to New York, 
took to journalism at the age of nineteen years. His indus- 
try and probity obtained him both means and credit, and. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 139 

also, what few young journalists obtain, social position. 
He was the founder of Harper's Magazine, one of the most 
successful serials in America, and many English authors are 
indebted to him for a trans- Atlantic recognition of their 
works. He edited an American edition of Jane Eyre before 
it had attracted attention in England, and conducted the 
Courier and Enquirer with great success for many years. 
The Times is now the most reputable of the great New York 
dailies^ and Mr. Raymond has made it influential both at 
home and abroad. He has retained, amidst his social and 
political successes, a predilection for "Bohemia,'' and be- 
came an indefatigable correspondent. I rode out with him 
sometimes, and heard, with interest, his accounts of the 
Italian w^r, whither he also went in furtherance of journal- 
ism. Among our quill cavalry-men was a fat gentleman 
from Philadelphia, who had great fear of death, and who 
used to '' tear'^ to White House, if the man '' Pat '^ shot a 
duck in the garden. He was a hearty, humorous person, 
however, and an adept at searching for news. . 

O'Ganlon rode with me several times to White House, 
and we have crossed the railroad bridge together, a hun- 
dred feet in the air, when the planks were slippery, the 
sides sloping, and the way so narrow that two horses could 
not pass abreast. He was a true Irishman, and leaped bar- 
ricades and ditches without regard to his neck. He had, 
also, a partiality for by-roads that led through swamps and 
close timber. He discovered one day a cow-path between 
Baker's and an old Mill at Grapevine Bridge. The long 
arms of oaks and beech trees reached across it, and young 
Absalom might have been ensnared by the locks at every 
rod therein. Through this devious and dangerous way, 
O'Ganlon used to dash, whooping, guiding his horse with 
marvellous dexterity, and bantering me to follow. I so far 
forgot myself generally, as to behave quite as irrationally, 
and once returned to Michie's with a bump above my right 
eye, that rivalled my head in size. At other times I rode 



110 CA^IPAIGXS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

alone, and my favorite route was an unfrequented lane called 
the " Quaker Road/' that extended from Despatch Station, 
on the line of rail, to Daker's, on the New Bridge Road. 
Much of this way was shut in by thick woods and dreary 
pine barrens ; but the road was hard and light, and a few 
quiet farms lay by the roadside. There was a mill, also, 
three miles from Daker's, where a turbulent creek crossed 
the route, and at an oak-wood, near by, I used to frighten 
the squirrels, so that they started up b}^ pairs and families ; 
I have chased them in this way a full mile, and they seemed 
to know me after a time. We used to be on the best of 
terms, and they would, at length, stand their ground sau- 
cil}^, and chatter, the one with the other, flourishing their 
bushy appendages, like so many straggling '' Bticktails." 
When I turned from the beaten road, where the ruts were 
like a ditch and parapet, and dead horses blackened the 
fields ; where teams went creaking day and night, and 
squads of sabremen drove pale, barefooted prisoners to and 
fro like swine or cattle, the silence and solitude of this by- 
lane were beautiful as sleep. Many of the old people living 
in this direction had not seen even a soldier or a sutler, save 
some mounted scouts that vanished in clouds of dust ; but 
they had listened with awe to the music of cannon, though 
they did not know either the place or the result of the fight- 
ing. If fate has ordained me to survive the Rebellion, I 
shall some day revisit these localities ; they are stamped 
legibly upon my mind, and I know almost every old couple 
in New Kent or Hanover counties. I have lunched at all 
the little springs on the road, and eaten corn-bread and 
bacon at most of the cabins. I have swam the Pamunke3'' 
at dozens of j^laces, and when my finances were low, and 
my nag hungry, have organized myself into a company of 
foragers, and broken into the good people's granaries. I do 
not know any position that admitted of as much adventure 
and variet3^ There was always enough danger to make my 
journeys precariously pleasant, and, when wearied of the 



CAMPAIGNS or A NON-COMBATANT. 141 

saddle, my friends at Daker's and Michic's had a savory 
julep and a comfortable bed always prepai-ed. I had more 
liberty than General McClellan, and a great deal more com- 
fort. 

Mrs. Michie was a warm-hearted, impulsive Virginia lady, 
with almost New England industry, and from very scanty 
materials she contrived to spread a bountiful table. Her 
coffee was bubbling with rich cream, and her ''yellow pone'' 
was overrunning with butter. A cleanly black girl shook a 
fly-brush over our shoulders as we ate, and the curious 
custom was maintained of sending a julep to our bedrooms 
before we rose in the mornings. Our hostess was too 
hospitable to be a bitter partisan, and during live weeks 
of tenure at her residence, v/e never held an hour's contro- 
versy. She had troubles, but she endured them patiently. 
She sav/, one by one, articles of property sacrificed or 
stolen ; she heard the servants speaking impudently ; and 
her daughters and son were in a remote part of the State. 
The 3^oung man was a Confederate Surgeon at Lynchburg, 
and the young ladies had taken refuge in Rockbridge 
County. The latter were, from all accounts, pretty and 
intelligent, and one day, as I examined some parcels of 
books in the parlors, I found a volume of amateur poems 
tnat some laboring bard had dedicated to the youngest of 
them. Mr. Michie was a fine old Virginia gentleman, v/ho 
remembered Thomas Jefferson well, as he had been reared 
in that great statesman's village, Charlottesville. He told 
me many anecdotes of Patrick Henry, John Randolph, and 
other distinguished patriots. 

I wrote in one of the absent daughter's albums the fol- 
lowing lines : — 

Alas ! for the pleasant peace we knew, 

In the happy summers of long ago, 
AVhen the rivers were briglit, and the skies were blue, 

By the homes of Henrico : 



142 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COJMBATANT. 

We dreamed of wars that were far away, 

And read, as in fable, of blood that ran, 
Where the James and Chickahominy stray, 

Through the groves of Powhattan. 

'Tis a dream come true ; for the afternoons 

Blow bugles of war, by our fields of grain, 
And the sabres clink, as the dark dragoons 

Come galloping up the lane ; 
The pigeons have flown from the eves and tiles. 

The oat-blades have grown to blades of steel, 
And the Huns swarm down the leafy aisles 

Of the grand old Commonweal. 

They have torn the Indian fisher's nets, 

Where flows Pamuukey toward the sea, 
And blood runs red in the rivulets. 

That babbled and brawled in glee ; 
The corpses are strewn in Fairoak glades, 

The hoarse guns thunder from Drury's Ridge, 
The fishes that played in the cove, deep shades, 

Are frightened from Bottom Bridge. 

I would that the year were blotted away, 

And the strawberry grew in the hedge again ; 
That the scythe might swing in the tangled hay, 

And the squirrel romp in the glen ; 
The walnut sprinkle the clover slopes. 

Where graze the sheep and the spotted steer ; 
And the winter restore the golden hopes. 

That were trampled in a year. 

On Friday, June 13, I made one of my customary trips 
to White House, in the company of O'Ganlon. The latter 
individual, in the course of a "healthy dash'^ that he made 
down the railroad ties, — whereby two shoes shied from his 
mare's hoofs, — reined into a quicksand that threatened to 
swallow his steed. He afterward left his sword at Summit 
Station, and I, obligingly, rode back three miles to recover 
it. We dined at Baker's, where Glumley sat beside the 
baby-face, pursuant to his art-duties, and the plump, red- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 143 

cheeked miss sat beside me. O'Ganlon was entertained by 
the talkative daughter, who drove him quite mad ; so that, 
when we resumed our horses, he insisted upon a second 
'' healthy dash,'^ and disappeared through a strip of woods. 
I followed, rationally, and had come to a blacksmith's shop, 
at the corner of a diverging road, when I was made aware 
of some startling occurrence in my rear. A mounted officer 
dashed past me, shouting some unintelligible tidings, and he 
was followed in quick succession by a dozen cavalry-men, 
who rode as if the foul fiend was at their heels. Then came 
a teamster,, bare-backed, whose rent harness trailed in the 
road, and directly some wagons that were halted before the 
blacksmith's, wheeled smartly, and rattled off towards 
White House. 

" What is the matter, my man ? " I said to one of these 
lunatics, hurriedly. 

" The Rebels are behind ! " he screamed, with white lips, 
and vanished. 

I thought that it might be as well to take some other 
road, and so struck off, at a dapper pace, in the direction of 
the new landing at Putney's or '' Garlic." At the same 
instant I heard the crack of carbines behind, and they had a 
magical influence upon my speed. I rode along a stretch of 
chestnut and oak wood, attached to the famous Webb estate, 
and when I came to a rill that passed by a little bridge, 
under the way, turned up its sandy bed and buried myself 
in the under-brush. A few breathless moments only had 
intervened, when the roadway seemed shaken by a hundred 
hoofs. The imperceptible horsemen yelled like a war-party 
of Camanches, and when they had passed, the carbines rang 
ahead, as if some bloody work was being done at every 
rod. 

I remained a full hour under cover ; but as no fresh 
approaches added to my mystery and fear, I sallied forth, 
and kept the route to Putney's, with ears erect and expect- 
ant pulses. I had gone but a quarter of a mile, when I 



144 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

discerned, through the gathering gloom, a black, misshapen 
object, standing in the middle of the road. As it seemed 
motionless, I ventured closer, when the thing resolved to a 
sutler's wagon, charred and broken, and still smoking from 
the incendiaries' torch. Further on, more of these burned 
wagons littered the way, and in one place two slain horses 
marked the roadside. When I emerged upon the Hanover 
road, sounds of shrieks and shot issued from the landing at 
''Garlic,'' and, in a moment, flames rose from the woody 
shores and reddened the evening. I knew by the gliding 
blaze that vessels had been fired and set adrift, and from my 
place could see the devouring element climbing rope and 
shroud. In a twinkling, a second light appeared behind the 
woods to my right, and the intelligence dawned upon me that 
the cars and houses at Tunstall's Station had been burned. 
By the fitful illumination, I rode tremulously to the old 
head-quarters at Black Creek, and as I conjectured, the depot 
and train were luridly consuming. The vicinity was marked 
by wrecked sutler's stores, the embers of wagons, and top- 
pled steeds. Below Black Creek the ruin did not extend : 
but when I came to White House the greatest confusion 
existed. Sutlers were taking down their booths, transports 
were slipping their cables, steamers moving down the 
stream. Stuart had made the circuit of the Grand Army to 
show Lee where the infantry could follow. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FEYER DE:E1AMS IN WAE. 

A SUBTLE enemy had of late joined the Confederate cause 
against the invaders. He was known as Pestilence, and 
his footst 3ps were so soft that neither scout nor picket could 
bar his entrance. His paths were subterranean, — through 
the tepid swamp water, the shallow graves of the dead ; 
and aerial, — through the stench of rotting animals, the 
nightly miasms of bog and fen. His victims were not pierced, 
or crushed, or mangled, but their deaths were not less terri- 
ble, because more lingering. They seemed to wither and 
shrivel away ; their eyes became at first very bright, and 
afterward lustreless; their skins grew hard and sallow; 
their lips faded to a dry whiteness; all the fluids of the body 
were consumed ; and they crumbled to corruption before 
life had fairly gone from them. 

This visitation has been, by common consent, dubbed 
"the Chickahominy fever,'' and some have called it the 
typhus fever. The troops called it the ''camp fever,'' and 
it was frequently aggravated by affections of the bowels 
and throat. The number of persons that died with it was 
fabulous. Some have gone so far as to say that the army 
could have better afforded the slaughter of twenty thousand 
men, than the delay on the Chickahominy .U The embalmers 
were now enjoying their millennium, and a steam coffin 
manufactory was erected at White House, where twenty 
men worked day and night, turning out hundreds of pine 
13 (U5) 



146 CA3IPAIGNS OF A KOX-CO]MBATA^^T. 

boxes. I had, occasion, in One of my visits to the depot, 
to repair to the tent of one of the enibahners. He was a 
sedate, grave person, and when I saw him, standing over 
the nude, hard corpse, he reminded me of the implacable 
vulture, looking into the eyes of PrometheusJ His battery 
and tube were pulsing, like one's heart and lungs, and the 
subject was being drained at the neck. I compared the 
discolored body with the figure of lanthe, as revealed in 
Queen Mab, but failed to see the beautifulness of death. 

" If you could only make him breathe. Professor,'' said 
an officer standing by. 

The dry skin of the embalmer broke into chalky dimples, 
and he grinned very much as a corpse might do : — 

" Ah ! " he said, " then there would be money made.'' 

To hear these embalmers converse with each other was 
like listening to the witch sayings in Macbeth. It appeared 
that the arch-fiend of embalming was a Frenchman named 
BouQa, or something of that kind, and all these worthies 
professed to have purchased his " system." They told 
grisly anecdotes of ^' operations," and experimented with 
chemicals, and congratulated each other upon the fever. 
They would, I think, have piled the whole earth with cata- 
combs of stony corpses, and we should have no i^iore green 
graves, but keep our dead with us as household ornaments. 

The negroes did not suffer with the fever, although their 
quarters were close and filthy. Their Elysium had come ; 
there was no more work. They slept and danced and 
grinned, and these three actions made up the sum of their 
existence. Such people to increase and multiply I never 
beheld. There were scores of new babies every day ; they 
appeared to be born by twins and triplets ; they learned to 
walk in twenty-four hours ; and their mothers were strong 
and hearty in less time. Such soulless, lost, degraded men 
and women did nowhere else exist. The divinity they never 
had ; the human they had forgotten ; they did no great 
wrongs, — thieving, quarrelling, deceiving, — but they failed 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 147 

to do any rights, and their worship was animal, and almost 
profane. They sang incongruous mixtures of hymns and 
iield sonors : — 



'to- 



" Oh! bruddern, watch an' pray, vjatch an' pray! 
De harvest am a ripenin' our Lord an' Marser say ! 
Oh ! ho ! yo ! dat ole coon, de serpent, ho ! oh ! 
Watch an' pray ! " 

I have heard them sing such medleys with tears in their 
eyes, apparently fervid and rapt. A very gray old man 
would lead off, keeping time to the words with his head and 
hands ; the mass joining in at intervals, and raising a scream- 
ing alleluja. Directly they would all rise, link hands, and 
proceed to dance the accompaniment. The motion would 
be slow at first, and the method of singing maintained ; 
after a time they would move more rapidly, shouting the 
lines together ; and suddenly becoming convulsed with 
strange excitement, they would toss up their arms, leap, 
fall, groan, and, seemingly, lose consciousness. Their 
prayers were earnest and vehement, but often degenerated 
to mere howls and noises. Some of both sexes had grand 
voices, that rang like bugles, and the very impropriety of 
their music made it fascinating. It used to seem to me that 
any of the great composers might have borrowed advan- 
tageously some of those original negro airs. In many 
cases, their owners came within the lines, registered their 
allegiance, and recovered the negroes. These were often 
veritable Shylocks, that claimed their pounds of flesh, v/ith 
unblushing reference to the law. The poor Africs went 
back cowed and tearful, and it is probable that they were 
afterward sent to the far South, that terrible terra incognita 
to a border slave. 

Among the houses to which I resorted was that of a Mr. 
Hill, one mile from White House. He had a thousand acres 
of land and a valuable fishery on the Pamunkey. The 
latter was worth, in good seasons, two thousand dollars a 



148 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

year. He had fished and farmed with negroes ; but these 
had leagued to run away, and he sent them across the river 
to a second farm that he owned in King William County. 
It was at HiU's house that the widow Custis was visiting 
when young Washington reined at the gate, on his road to 
Williamsburg. With reverent feelings I used, to regard the 
old place, and Hill frequently stole away from his formidable 
military household, to talk with me on the front porch. 
Perhaps in the same moonlights, with the river shimmering 
at their feet, and the grapevine shadowing the creaky 
corners, — their voices softened, their chairs drawn very 
close, their hands touching with a thrill, — the young soldier 
and his affianced had made their courtship. I sometimes 
sat breathless, thinking that their figures had come back, and 
that I heard them whispering. 

Hill was a Virginian, — large, hospitable, severe, proud, 
— and once I ventured to speak upon the policy of slavery, 
with a view to develop his own relation to the " institu- 
tion.^' He said, with the swaggering manner of his class, 
that slavery was a " domestic '^ institution, and that there- 
fore no political law could reach it. I insinuated, quietly, 
that no political law should therefore sustain it, and took 
exception to the idea that what was domestic was therefore 
without the province of legislation. When I exampled poly- 
gamy. Hill became passionatd, and asked if I was an aboli- 
tionist. I opined that I was not, and he so far relented as 
to say that slavery was sanctioned by divine and human 
laws ; that it was ultimately to be embraced by all white 
nationalities, and that the Caucasian was certain, in the 
end, to subjugate and possess every other race. He pointed, 
with some shrewdness, to the condition of the Chinese in 
California and Australia, and epitomized the gradual enslav- 
ing of the Mongol and Malay in various quarters of the 
world. 

"As to our treatment of niggers," he said, curtly, "I 
never prevaricate, as some masters do, in that respect. I 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB AT A>;T. 149 

whip my niggers when they want it ! If they are saucy, 
or careless, or Islzj, I have 'em flogged. About twice a 
year every nigger has to be punished. If they ain't roped 
over twice a year, they take on airs and want to be gentle- 
men. A nigger is bound by no sentiment of duty or affec- 
tion. You must keep him in trim by fear." 

Among the victims of the swamp fever, were Major Lar- 
rabee, and Lieutenant-Colonel Emory, of the Fifth Wiscon- 
sin regiment ; I had been indebted to them for many a meal 
and draught of spirits. I had talked with each of them, 
when the camps were darkened and the soldiery asleep. 
Larrabee was a soldier by nature, — adventurous, energetic, 
intrepid, aggressive. He had been a country Judge in Wis- 
consin, and afterwards a meniber of Congress. When the 
war commenced, he enlisted as a common soldier, but 
public sentiment forced the State Government to make him 
a Major. Emory was a mild, reflective, unimpassioned gen- 
tleman, — too modest to be eminent, too scrupulous to be 
ambitious. The men v>rere opposites, but both capital com- 
panions, and they were seized with the fever about the 
same time. The Major was removed to White House, and 
I visited him one day in the hospital quarters. Surgeon 
General Watson, hospital commandant, took me through 
the quarters ; there was quite a town of sick men ; they lay 
in wall-tents — about twenty in a tent, — and there were 
daily deaths ; those that caught the fever, were afterwards 
unfit for duty, as they took relapses on resuming the field. 
The tents were pitched in a damp cornfield ; for the Fed- 
erals so reverenced their national shrines, that they forbade 
White House and lawn to be used for hospital purposes. 
Under the best circumstances, a field hospital is a comfort- 
less place ; but here the sun shone like a furnace upon the 
tents, and the rains drowned out the inmates. If a man can 
possibly avoid it, let him never go to the hospital : for he 
will be called a " skulker," or a *' shyster," that desires to 
escape the impending battle. Twenty hot, feverish, tossing 
13* 



150 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

men, confined in a small tent, like an oven, and exposed to 
contumely and bad food, should get a wholesome horror of 
war and glory. 

So far as I could observe and learn, the authorities at 
White House carried high heads, and covetous hands. In 
brief, they lived like princes, and behaved like knaves. 
There was one — whose conduct has never been investi- 
gated — who furnished one of the deserted mansions near 
by, and brought a lady from the North to keep it in order. 
He drove a span that rivalled anything in Broadway, and 
his wines were luscious. His establishment reminded me 
of that of Napoleon III. in the late Italian war, and yet, this 
man was receiving merely a Colonel's pay. My impression 
is that everybody at White House robbed the Government, 
and in the end, to cover their delinquencies, these scoun- 
drels set fire to an immense quantity of stores, and squared 
their accounts thus : " Burned on the Pamunkey, June 28, 
commissary, quartermaster's, and hospital stores, one 
million dollars." 

The time was now drawing to a close that I should pass 
amid the familiar scenes of this region. The good people at 
Baker's were still kindly ; but having climbed into the great 
bed one night, I found my legs aching, my brain violently 
throbbing, my chest fall of pain and my eyes weak. When 
I woke in the morning my lips were fevered, I could ea.t 
nothing, and when I reached my saddle, it seemed that I 
should faint. In a word, the Chickahominy fever had seized 
upon me. My ride to New Bridge was marked by great 
agony, and during much of the time I was quite blind. I 
turned off, at Gaines's Mill, to rest at Captain Kingwalt's ; 
but the old gentleman was in the grip of the ague, and I fore- 
bore to trouble him with a statement of my grievances. 
Skyhiski made me a cup of tea, which I could not drink, 
and Fogg made me lie on his "poncho." It was like old 
times come back, to hear them all speak cheerfully, and the 
man Clover said that, if there "warn't" a battle soon, he 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 151 

knew what he'd do, he did ! he'd go home, straight as a 
buck ! 

" Becoz," said the man Clover, flourishing his hands, " I 
volunteered to fight. To fighf, sir ! not to dig and drive 
team. Here we air, sir, stuck in the mud, burnin' with 
fever, livin' on hardtack. And thair's Kichmond ! Just 
thair ! You can chuck a stone at it, if you mind to, A'ter 
awhile them rebbils'll pop out, and fix us. Why ain't we 
led up, sa-a-y ? '' 

The man Clover represented common sentiment among 
the troops at this time ; but I told him that in all probability 
he would soon be gratified with a battle. My prediction 
was so far correct, that when I met the man Clover on the 
James River, a week afterward, he said, with a rueful coun- 
tenance — 

^' Sa-a-a-y ! It never rains but it pours, does it ? " 

As I rode from the camp of the Pennsylvania Reserves, 
at noon, on the 21st of June, I seemed to feel a glooni}^ 
premonition of the calamities that were shortly to fall upoji 
the '' Army of the Potomac.'^ I passed in front of Hogan 
house ; through the wood above the mill ; along Gaines's 
Lane, between his mansion and his barn ; across a creek, 
tributary to the Chickahominy ; and up the ploughed hills 
by a military road, toward Grapevine Bridge. Lieutenant- 
Colonel Heath, of the Fifth Maine Regiment, was riding 
with me, and we stopped at the tip of an elevated field to 
look back upon the scene. I was very sick and weary, and 
I lay my head upon the mane of my nag, while Heath threv/ 
a leg across his saddle pommel, and straightened his slight 
figure ; we both gazed earnestly. 

The river lay in the hollow or ravine to the left, and a few 
farm-houses sat among the trees on the hill-tops beyond. A 
battery was planted at each house, and we could see the 
lines of red-clay parapets marking the sites. From the roof 
of one of the houses floated a speck of canvas, — the rev- 
olutionary flag. A horseman or two moved shadow-like 



152 CAIilPAIGNS OF A KOX-COMBATANT. 

across a slope of yellow grain. Before and back the woods 
belted the landscape, and some pickets of both sides paced 
the river brink : they did not fire upon each other. 

Our side of the Chickahomiuy was not less peaceful. A 
couple of batteries lay below us, in the meadows ; but the 
horses were dozing' in the harness, and the gunners, stand- 
ing bolt upright at the breech, seemed parts of their 
pieces ; the teamsters lay grouped in the long grass. Im- 
mediately in front, Gaines's Mansion and outhouses spot- 
ted a hillside, and we could note beyond a few white tents 
shining through the trees. The roof of the old mill 
crouched between a medley of wavy fields and woods, to 
our right, and just at our feet a tiny rill divided Gaines's 
Mill from our own. Behind us, over the wilderness of 
swamp and bog-timber, rose Smith's redoubt, with the Fed- 
eral flag flaunting from the rampart. 

" Townsend," said Heath, as he swept the whole country 
with his keen eye, "do you know that we are standing 
upon historic ground ? '^ 

He had been a poet and an orator, and he seemed to feel 
the solemnity of the place. 

"It may become historic to-morrow," I replied. 

" It is so to-day," he said, earnestly ; " not from battle as 
yet ; that may or may not happen ; but in the pause before 
the storm there is something grand ; and this is the pause." 

He took his soft beaver in his hand, and his short red 
hair stood pugnaciously back from his fine forehead. 

" The men that have been here already," he added, 
" consecrated the place ; young McClellan, and bluff, bull- 
headed Franklin ; the one-armed devil, Kearney, and hand- 
some Joe Hooker ; gray, gristly Heintzelman ; white- 
bearded, insane Sumner ; Stuart, Lee, Johnston, the 
Hills " 

"Why not," said I, laughingly, "Eric the red, — the 
redoubtable Heath ! " 

" Why not ? " he said, with a flourish ; " Fate may have 
something in store for me, as well as for these." 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 153 

I have thought, since, how terribly our light conversation 
found verification in fact. If I had said to Heath, that, at 
the very moment, Jefferson Davis and his Commander-in- 
chief were sitting in the dwelling opposite, reconnoitring 
and consulting ; that, even now, their telescopes were 
directed upon us ; that the effect of their counsel was to be 
manifest in less than a week; that one of the bloodiest 
battles of modern times was to be fought beside and around 
us ; that six days of the most terrible fighting known in 
history were to ensue ; that my friend and comrade was 
standing upon the same clods which would be reddened, at 
his next coming, with his heart's blood ; and that the 
trenches were to yawn beneath his hoofs, to sv^^allow him- 
self and his steed, — if I had foretold these things as they 
were to occur, I wonder if the " pause before the storm " 
would have been less awful, and our ride campward less 
sedate. Poor Heath ! Gallant New Englander ! he called 
at my bedside, the sixth day following, as I lay full 
of pain, fear, -and fever, and after he bade me good by, I 
heard his horse's hoofs ringing down the lane. Ten minutes 
afterward he was shot through the head. 

When I reached Michie's, at three o'clock, 1 had to be 
helped from the saddle, and the fever was raging in my 
whole body before nightfall. My hands were flushed, my 
face hot, but my feet were quite cold, and I was seized with 
chills that seemed to shake my teeth from my head. Mrs. 
Michie made me a bowl of scorching tea, and one of the 
black-girls bathed my limbs in boiling water. The fever 
dreams came to me that night, in snatches of burning sleep, 
and toward morning I lay restlessly awake, moving from 
side to side, famishing for drink, but rejecting it, when they 
brought it to my lips. The next day, my kind hostess gave 
me some nourishing soup, but after a vain effort to partake 
of it, I was compelled to put it aside. O'Ganlon procured 
some pickled fruit and vegetables from a sutler, which I ate 
voraciously, quafiSng the vinegar like wine. Some of my 



154 CA3IPAIGXS OF A K OX-COMB A TAKT. 

regimental friends heard of my illness, and they sent me 
quiet luxuries, which gladdened me, though I did not eat. 
During the day I had some moments of ease, when I tried to 
read. There was a copy of Wordsworth's poems in the house, 
and I used to repeat stanzas from "Peter Bell,'' till they rang, 
in eddies of rhyme, through my weak brain, and continued to 
scan and jangle far into the nights. Some of these fever- 
dreams were like delusions in delirium : peopled with mon- 
sters, that grinned and growled. Little black globules used 
to leer from corners, and after a time they began to revolve 
toward me, increasing as they came, and at length rolling 
like mountains of surge. I frequently woke v/ith a 
scream, and found my body in profuse perspiration. There 
were fiery snakes, also, that, at first, moved slowly around 
me, and I followed them with red and terrified eyes. After 
awhile they flashed in circles of lightning, and hissed show- 
ers of sparks, until I became quite crazed with fear. The 
most horrible apparitions used to come to my bedside, and 
if I dropped to sleep with any thought half formed or half 
developed, the odd half of that thought became impregnated, 
somehow, and straightway loomed up a goblin, or a giant, 
or a grotesque something, that proceeded to torture jne, 
like a sort of Frankenstein, for having made it. Amid all 
these ghastly things, there came beautiful glimpses of form, 
scene, and sensation, that straightway changed to horrors. 
I remember, for example, that I was gliding down a stream, 
where the boughs overhead were as shady as the waters, 
and there were holy eyes that seemed to cool my fever ; 
but suddenly the stream became choked with corpses, that 
entangled their dead limbs with mine, until I strangled and 
called aloud, — waking up O'Ganlon and some reporters 
who proposed to give me morphine, that I might not alarm 
the house. 

How the poor soldiers fared, in the hot hospitals, I shud- 
der to think ; but a more merciful decree spared my life, 
and kind treatment met meat every hand. Otherwise, I be- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 155 

lieve, I should not be alive to-day to write this story ; 
for the fever had seized me in its severest form, and I had 
almost tutored myself to look upon my end, far from my 
home and on the very eve of my manhood. 

O'Ganlou, at last, resolved to send me to White House, 
and started thither one day, to obtain a berth for me upon 
a Sanitary steamer. The next day an ambulance came to 
the door. I tried to sit up in bed, and succeeded ; I feebly 
robed myself and staggered to the stairs. I crawled, 
rather than walked, to the hall below ; but when I took a 
chair, and felt the cool breeze from the oaks fanning my 
hair, I seemed to know that I should get well. 

*' Boom ! Boom! Boom!" pealed some cannon at the 
moment, and all the windows shook with the concussion. 

Directly we heard volleys of musketry, and then the 
camps were astir. Horses went hither and thither ; signal 
flags flashed to-and-fro ; a battery of the Reserve Artillery 
dashed down the lane. 

I felt my strength coming back with the excitement ; I 
even smiled feebly as the guns thundered past. 

" Take away your am-bulance, old fellow," I said, " I 
shan't go home till I see a battle." 



CHAPTER XV. 



TWO DAYS OF BATTLE. 



The Confederates had been waiting two months for 
McClellan's advance. Emboldened by his delay they had 
gathered the whole of their available strength from remote 
Tennessee, from the Mississippi, and from the coast, imtil, 
confident and powerful, they crossed Meadow Bridge on the 
26th of June, 1862, and drove in our right wing at Mechan- 
icsville. The reserves of Gen. McCall were stationed here ; 
they made a wavering resistance, — wherein four companies 
of Bucktails were captured bodily, — and fell back at night- 
fall upon Porter's Corps, at Gaines's Mill. Fitz John 
Porter commanded the brigades of Gens. Sykes and Mor- 
rell, — the former made up solely of regulars. He appeared 
to have been ignorant of the strength of the attacking 
party, and he telegraphed to McClellan, early on Thursday 
evening, that he required no reinforcements, and that he 
could hold his ground. The next morning he was attacked 
in front and flank ; Stewart's cavalry fell on his right, and 
turned it at Old Church. He formed at noon in new line 
of battle, from Gaines's House, along the Mill Road to New 
Coal Harbor ; but stubbornly persisted in the belief that he 
could not be beaten. By three o'clock he had been driven 
back two miles, and all his energies were unavailing to 
recover a foot of ground. He hurled lancers and cavalry 
upon the masses of Jackson and the Hills, but the butter- 
nut infantry formed impenetrable squares, hemmed in with 

(15G) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 157 

rods of steel, and as the liorseme'n galloped around them, 
searching for previous points, they were swept from their 
saddles with volleys of musketry. He directed the terrible 
fire of his artillery upon them, but though the gray footmen 
fell in heaps, they steadily advanced, closing up the gaps, 
and their lines were like long stretches of blaze and ball. 
Their fire never slackened nor abated. They loaded and 
moved forward, column on column, like so many immortals 
that could not be vanquished. The scene from the balloon, 
as Lowe informed me, was awful bej^ond all comparison, — 
of puffing shells and shrieking shrapnel, with volleys that 
shattered the hills and filled the air with deathly whispers. 
Infantry, artillery, and horse turned the Federal right from 
time to time, and to preserve their order of battle the whole 
line fell back toward Grapevine Bridge. At five o'clock 
Slocum's Division of volunteers crossed the creek from the 
south side, and made a desperate dash upon the solid col- 
umns of the Confederates. At the same time Toombs's 
Georgia Brigade charged Smith's redoubt from the south 
side, and there was a probability of the whole of both 
armies engaging before dark. 

My fever of body had so much relinquished to my fever 
of mind, that at three o'clock I called for my horse, and 
determined to cross the bridge, that I might witness the 
battle. 

/ It was with difficulty that I could make my way along 
the narrow corduroy, for hundreds of wounded were limp- 
ing from the field to the safe side, and ammunition wagons 
were passing the other way, driven by reckless drivers who 
should have been blown up momentarily. Before I had 
reached the north side of the creek, an immense throng of 
panic-stricken people came surging down the slippery 
bridge. A few carried muskets, but I saw several wantonly 
throw their pieces into the flood, and as the mass were 
unarmed, I inferred that they had made similar dispositions. 
Fear, anguish, cowardice, despair, disgust, were the predom- 
U 



158 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

inant expressions of the upturned faces. The gaunt trees, 
towering from tlie current, cast a solomn shadow upon the 
moving throng, and as tlio evening dimness was falling 
around them, it almost seemed that they were engulfed in 
some cataract. I reined my horse close to the side of a 
team, that I might not be borne backward by tlie crowd ; 
but some of the lawless fugitives seized him by the bridle, 
and others attempted to pull me from the saddle. 

" Gi' up that boss ! '' said one, " what business you got 
wi' a boss ? ^' 

''That's my critter, and I am in for a ride ; so you get 
off 1 '' said another.) 

I spurred my pony vigorously with the left foot, and with 
the right struck the man at the bridle under the chin. The 
thick column parted left and right, and though a howl of 
hate pursued me, I kept straight to the bank, cleared the 
swamp, and took the military route parallel with the creek, 
toward the nearest eminence. At every step of the way I 
met wounded persons. A horseman rode past me, leaning 
over his pommel, with blood streaming from his mouth and 
hanging in gouts from his saturated beard. The day had 
been intensely hot and black boys were besetting the 
v/ounded with buckets of cool lemonade. It was a common 
occurrence for the couples that carried the wounded on 
stretchers to stop on the way, purchase a glass of the bev- 
erage, and drink it. Sometimes the blankets on the 
stretchers were closely folded, and then I knew that the 
man within was dead. (A little fellow, who used his sword 
for a cane, stopped me on the road, and said — 

*'See yer ! This is the ball that jes' fell out o' my 
boot." 

He handed me a lump of lead as big as my thumb, and 
pointed to a rent in his pantaloons, whence the drops rolled 
down his boots. 

" I wouldn't part with that for suthin' handsome,'' he 
said ; "it'll be nice to hev to hum." 

As I cantered away he shouted after me — 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03IIiATANT. 159 

" Be sure you spell my name riglit ! it's Smith, with an 

^E^ — S-SM-T-H-S. '^) 

In one place I met five drunken men escorting a wounded 
sergeant ; the latter had been shot in the jaw; and when he 
attempted to speak, the blood choked his articulation. 

''You let go him, pardner,'' said one of the staggering- 
brutes, '' he's not your sergeant. Go 'way ! ^^ 

"Now, sergeant," said the other, idiotically, 'Til see 
3^ou all right, sergeant. Come, Bill, fetch him over to the 
corn-crib and we'll give him a drink." 

Here the first speaker struck the second, and »the ser- 
geant, in wrath, knocked them both down. All this time 
the enemy's cannon were booming close at hand. - 

I came to an officer of rank, whose shoulder-emblem I 
could not distinguish, riding upon a limping field-horse. 
Four men held him to his seat, and a fifth led the animal. 
The officer was evidently wounded, though ho did not seem 
to be bleeding, and the dust of battle had settled upon his 
blanched, stiffening face, like grave-mould upon a corpse. 
He was swaying in the saddle, and his hair — for he was 
bare-headed — shook across his Vvdiite eyeballs. He re- 
minded me of the famous Cid, whose body was sent forth to 
scare the Saracens. 

A mile or more from Grapevine Bridge, on a hill-top, 
lay a frame farm-house, with cherry trees encircling it, and 
along the declivity of the hill were some cabins, corn-sheds, 
and corn-bins. The house was now a Surgeon's head- 
quarters, and the v/ounded lay in the yard and lane, under 
the shade, waiting their turns to be hacked and maimed. I 
caught a glimpse through the door, of the butchers and 
their victims ; some curious people v^ere peeping through 
the windows at the operation. As the processions of 
freshly wounded went by, the poor fellows, lying on 
their backs, looked mutely at me, and their great eyes 
smote my heart. 

Something has been written in the course of the war 



IGO C.OIPAIGXS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

upon straggling from the ranks, during battle. But I have 
seen nothing that conveys an adequate idea of the number 
of cowards and idlers that so stroll off. In this instance, 
I met squads, companies, almost regiments of them. Some 
came boldly along the road ; others skulked in woods, and 
made long detours to escape detection ; a few were com- 
posedly playing cards, or heating their coffee, or discussing 
the order and consequences of the fight. The rolling 
drums, the constant clatter of file and volley-firing, — noth- 
ing could remind them of the requirements of the time and 
their own infamy. Their appreciation of duty and honor 
seemed to have been forgotten ; neither hate, ambition, nor 
patriotism could force them back ; but when the columns 
of mounted provosts charged upon them, they sullenly re- 
sumed their muskets and returned to the field. At the foot 
of the hill to which I have referred the ammunition wagons 
lay in long lines, with the horses' heads turned from the 
fight. A little beyond stood the ambulances ; and between 
both sets of vehicles, fatigue-parties were going and re- 
turning to and from the field. At the top of the next hill 
sat many of the Federal batteries, and I was admonished 
by the shriek of shells that passed over my head and burst 
far behind me, that I was again to look upon carnage and 
share the perils of the soldier. 

The question at once occurred to me : Can I stand fire ? 
Having for some months penned daily paragraphs relative 
to death, courage, and victory, I was surprised to find that 
those words were now unusually significant. " Death '' 
was a syllable to me before ; it was a whole dictionary 
now. *' Courage " was natural to every man a week ago ; 
it was rarer than genius to-day. " Victory '' was the first 
v>^ord in the lexicon of youth yesterday noon ; " discretion" 
and ''safety" were at present of infinitely more conse- 
quence. I resolved, notwithstanding these qualms, to ven- 
ture to the hill-top : but at every step flitting projectiles 
took my breath. The music of the battle-field, I have often 



CAINirAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. IGl 

thought, should be hitroduced in opera. Not the drum, 
the bugle, or the fife, though these are thrilh'ng, after 
their fashion ; but the music of modern ordnance and pro- 
jectile, the beautiful whistle of the minie-ball, the howl of 
shell that makes unearthly havoc with the air, the whiz-z-z 
of solid shot, the chirp of bullets, the scream of grape and 
canister, the yell of immense conical cylinders, that fall like 
redhot stoves and spout burning coals. 

All these passed over, beside, beneath, before, behind 
me. I seemed to be an invulnerable something at whom 
some cunniDg juggler was tossing steel, with an intent to 
impinge upon, not to strike him. I rode like one with his 
life in his hand, and, so far as I remember, seemed to think 
of nothing. No fear, per se ; no regret ; no adventure ; 
only expectancy. It was the expectancy of a shot, a chok- 
ing, a loud cry, a stiffening, a dead, dull tumble, a quiver, 
and — blindness. But with this was mingled a sort of en- 
joyment, like that of the daring gamester, who has played 
his soul and is waiting for the decision of the cards. I 
felt all his suspense, more than his hope ; and withal, 
there was excitement in the play. Now a whistling ball 
seemed to pass just under my ear, and before I commenced 
to congratulate myself upon the escape, a shell, w^ith a 
showery and revolving fuse, appeared to take the top off 
my head. Then my heart expanded and contracted, and 
somehow I found myself conning rhymes. At each clip- 
ping ball, — for I could hear them coming, — a sort of cold- 
ness and paleness rose to the very roots of my hair, and 
was then replaced by a hot flush. I caught myself laugh- 
ing, syllabically, and shrugging my shoulders, fitfully. 
Once, the rhyme that came to my lips — for I am sure 
there was no mind in the iteration — was the simple 
nursery prayer — 

" Now I lay me down to sleep," 
14* 



162 avjiPAiGNS OF A non-co:mbatant. 

and I continued to saj '' down to sleep/' " down to sleep/' 
'' down to sleep/' till I discovered myself, when I ceased. 
Then a shell, apparently just in range, dashed toward me, 
and the words spasmodically leaped up : '' Xow's your 
time. This is your billet." With the same insane perti- 
nacity I continued to repeat " Now's your time, now's 
your time," and "billet, billet, billet," till at last I came 
up to the nearest battery, where I could look over the crest 
of the hill ; and as if I had looked into the crater of a vol- 
cano, or down the fabled abyss into hell, the whole grand 
horror of a battle burst upon my sight. For a moment I 
could neither feel nor think. I scarcely beheld, or behold- 
ing did not understand or perceive. Only the roar of guns, 
the blaze that flashed along a zigzag line and was straight- 
way smothered in smoke, the creek lying glassily beneath 
me, the gathering twilight, and the brownish blue of woods ! 
I only knew that some thousands of fiends, were playing 
with fire and tossing brands at heaven, — that some pleas- 
ant slopes, dells, and highlands were lit as if the conflagra- 
tion of universes had commenced, v There is a passage of 
Holy Writ that comes to my mind as I write, which explains 
the sensation of the time better than I can do : — 

'' He opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a smoke out 
of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and 
the air were darkened by i^eason of the smoke of the pit. 

''And there came out of the smoke locusts up>on the earth.^' — 
Revelation, ix. 2, 3. j 

In a few moments, when I was able to compose myself, 
the veil of cloud blew away or dissolved, and I could see 
fragments of the long columns of infantr3^ Then from tlic 
far end of the lines pufied smoke, and from man to man the 
puff ran down each line, enveloping the columns again, so 
that they were alternately visible and invisible. At points 
between the masses of infantry lay field-pieces, throbbing 
with rapid deliveries, and emitting volumes of white steam. 
Now and then the firing slackened for a short time, when I 



CxVMPAIGNS OF A NON-CO]MBATANT. 163 

could remark the Federal line, fringed with bayonets, 
stretching from the low meadow on the left, up the slope, 
over the ridge, up and down the crest, until its right disap- 
peared in the gloaming of wood and distance. Standards 
jQapped here and there above the column, and I knew, from 
the fact that the line became momentarily more distinct, that 
the Federals were falling stubbornly back. At times a bat- 
tery would dash a hundred yards forward, unlimber, and 
fire a score of times, and directly would return two hundred 
yards and blaze again. I saw a regiment of lancers gather 
at the foot of a protecting swell of field ; the bugle rang 
thrice, the red pennons went upward like so many song 
birds, the mass turned the crest and disappeared, then the 
whole artillery belched and bellowed. In twenty minutes a 
broken, straggling, feeble group of horsemen returned ; the 
red pennons still fluttered, but I knew that they were redder 
for the blood that dyed them. Finally, the Federal infantry 
fell back to the foot of the hill on which I stood ; all the 
batteries were clustering around me, and suddenly a column 
of men shot up from the long sweep of the abandoned hill, 
with batteries on the left and right. Their muskets were 
turned towards us, a crash and a whiff" of smoke swept from 
flank to flank, and the air around me rained buck, slug, 
bullet, and ball ! 

The incidents that now occurred in rapid succession were 
so thrilling and absorbing that my solicitude was lost in 
their grandeur. I sat like one dumb, with my soul in my 
eyes and my ears stunned, watching the terrible column of 
Confederates. Each party was now straining every energy, 
— the one for victory, the other against annihilation. The 
darkness was closing in, and neither cared to prolong the 
contest after night. The Confederates, therefore, aimed to 
finish their success with the rout or capture of the Fed- 
erals, and the Federals aimed to maintain their ground 
till nightfall. The musketry was close, accurate, and unin- 
terrupted. Eveiy second was marked by a discharge, — 



1G4 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0X-C02IBATANT. 

the one iiriug, the other replying promply. No attempt 
was now made to remove the wounded ; the coolness of the 
fight had gone by, and we witnessed only its fury. The 
stragglers seemed to appreciate the desperate emergency, 
and came voluntarily back to relieve their comrades. The 
cavalry was massed, and collected for another grand charge. 
Like a black shadow gliding up the. darkening hillside, they 
precipitated themselves upon the columns : the musketry 
ceased for the time, and shrieks, steel strokes, the crack of 
carbines and revolvers succeeded. Shattered, humiliated, 
sullen, the horse wheeled and returned. Then the guns 
thundered again, and by the blaze of the pieces, the clods 
and turf were revealed, fitfully'" strewn with men and 
horses. 

The vicinity of my p^osition now exhibited traces of the 
battle. A caisson burst close by, and I heard the howl of 
dying wretches, as the fires flashed like meteors. A solid 
shot struck a field-carriage not thirty yards from my feet, 
and one of the flying splinters spitted a gunner as if he had 
been pierced by an arrow. An artillery-man was standing 
with folded arms so near that I could have reached to touch 
him ; a whistle and a thumping shock and he fell beneath 
my nag's head. I wonder, as I calmly recall these episodes 
now, how I escaped the death that played about me, chilled 
me, thrilled me, — but spared me ! " They are fixing bay- 
onets for a charge. My God ! See them come down the 
hiU.'^ 

In the gathering darkness, through the thick smoke, I 
saw or seemed to see the interminable column roll steadily 
downward. I fancied that I beheld great gaps cut in their 
ranks though closing solidly up, like the imperishable Gorgon. 
I may have heard some of this next day, and so confounded 
the testimonies of eye and ear. But I knew that there was 
a charge, and that the drivers were ordered to stand by 
their saddles, to run off the guns at any moment. The 
descent and bottom below me, were now all ablaze, and 



CAMPxUGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 165 

directly above the din of cannon, rifle, and jDistol, I beard a 
great cheer, as of some salvation achieved. 

" The Rebels are repulsed ! "We have saved the guns ! " 

A cheer greeted this announcement from the battery-men 
around me. They reloaded, rammed, swabbed, and fired, 
with naked arms, and drops of sweat furrowed the powder- 
stains upon their faces. The horses stood motionless, quiv- 
ering not half so much as the pieces. The gristly ofScers 
held to their match-strings, smothering the excitement of 
the time. All at once there was a running hither and 
thither, a pause in the thunder, a quick consultation — 

*' 'Sdeath ! They have flanked us again. '^ 

In an instant I seemed overwhelmed with men. For a 
moment I thought the enemy had surrounded us. 

'' It's all up," said one ; ^' I shall cross the river." 

I wheeled my horse, fell in with the stream of fugitives, 
and was borne swiftly through field and lane and trampled 
fence to the swampy margin of the Chickahominy. At 
every step the shell fell in and among the fugitives, adding 
to their panic. I saw officers who had forgotten their regi- 
ments or had been deserted by them, wending with the 
mass. The wounded fell and were trodden upon. Personal 
exhibitions of valor and determination there were ; but the 
main body had lost heart, and were weary and hungry. 

As we approached the bridge, there was confusion and al- 
tercation ahead. The people were borne back upon me. 
Curses and threats ensued. 

'' It is the Provost-guard," said a fugitive, '' driving back 
the boys." 

''Go back!" called a voice ahead. ''I'll blow you to 
h — 11, if you don't go back ! Not a man shall cross the 
bridge without orders I " 

The stragglers were variously affected by this intelligence. 
Some cursed and threatened ; some of the wounded blub- 
bered as they leaned languidly upon the shoulders of their 
comrades. Others stoically threw themselves on the 



166 CAMPAIGNS OF A KOI^-COMBATANT. 

ground and tried to sleep. One man called aloud that the 
'' boys " were stronger than the Provosts, and that, there- 
fore, the " boys '' ought to "go in and win.'' 

"Where's the man that wants to mutiny?" said the 
voice ahead ; "let me see him ! " 

The man slipped away ; for the Provost ofiScer spoke as 
though he meant all he said. 

"Nobody wants to mutiny !" called others. 
" Three cheers for the Union." 

The wounded and well threw up their hats together, and 
made a sickly hurrah. The grim officer relented, and he 
shouted stentoriously that he would take the responsibility 
of passing the wounded. These gathered themselves up 
and pushed through the throng ; but many skulkers plead 
injuries, and so escaped. When I attempted to follow, on 
horseback, hands were laid upon me and I was refused exit. > 
In that hour of terror and sadness, there were yet jests and 
loud laughter. However keenly I felt these things, I had 
learned that modesty amounted to little in the army ; so I 
pushed my nag steadily forward and scattered the camp 
vernacular, in the shape of imprecations, left and right. 

"Colonel," I called to the officer in command, as the line 
of bayonets edged me in, "' may I pass out ? I am a civil- 
ian ! " 

" No ! " said the Colonel, wrathfully. " This is no place 
for a civilian." 

" That's why I want to get away." 
"Pass out!" / 

I followed the winding of the woods to Woodbury's 
Bridge, — the next above Grapevine Bridge. The ap- 
proaches were clogged with wagons and field-pieces, and I 
understood that some panic-stricken people had pulled up 
some of the timbers to prevent a fancied pursuit. Along 
the sides of the bridge many of the wounded were washing 
their wounds in the water, and the cries of the teamsters 
echoed weirdly through the trees that grew in the*river. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 167 

At nine o'clock, we got under way, — horsemen, batteries, 
ambulances, ammunition teams, infantry, and finally some 
great siege o2s. that had been hauled from Gaines's House. 
One of these pieces broke down the timbers again, and my 
impression is that it was cast into the current. When we 
emerged from the swamp timber, the hills before us were 
found brilliantly illuminated with burning camps. I made 
toward head-quarters, in one of Trent's fields ; but all the 
tents save one had been taken down, and lines of white-cov- 
ered wagons stretched southward until they were lost in 
the shadows. The tent of General McClellan alone 
remained, and beneath an arbor of pine boughs, close at 
hand, he sat, with his Corps Commanders and Aides, hold- 
ing a council of war. A ruddy fire lit up the historical 
groupt and I thought at the time, as I have said a hundred 
times since, that the consultation might be selected for a 
grand national painting. The crisis, the hour, the adjuncts, 
the renowned participants, peculiarly fit it for pictorial com- 
memoration.) 

The young commander sat in a chair, in full uniform, un- 
covered. Heintzelman was kneeling upon a fagot, ear- 
nestly speaking. De Joinville sat apart, by the fire, exam- 
ining a map. Fitz John Porter was standing back of 
McClellan, leaning upon his chair. Keyes, Franklin, and 
Sumner, were listening attentively. Some sentries paced 
to and fro, to keep out vulgar curiosity. Suddenly, there 
was a nodding of heads, as of some policy decided ; they 
threw themselves upon their steeds, and galloped off toward 
Michie's. 

(( As I reined at Michie's porch, at ten o'clock, the bridges 
behind me were blown up, with a flare that seemed a blaz- 
ing of the Northern Lights. The family were sitting upon 
the porch, and Mrs. Michie was greatly alarmed with the 
idea that a battle would be fought round her house next 
day. 

O'Ganlon, of Meagher's staff, had taken the fever, and 
sent anxiously for me, to compare our symptoms. 



163 CA3HPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

I bade the good people adieu before I went to bed, and 
gave the man " Pat'^ a dollar to stand by- my horse while I 
slept, and to awake me at any disturbance, that I might be 
ready to scamper. The man '' Pat," I am bound to say, 
woke me up thrice by the exclamation of — 

" Sure, yer honor, there's — well — to pay in the yard I 
I think ye and the Doctor had better ride off.'' 

On each of those occasions, I found that the man Pat had 
been lonesome, and wanted somebody to speak to. 

AVhat a sleep was mine that night ! I forgot my fever. 
But another and a hotter fever burned my temples, — the 
fearful excitement of the time ! Whither were we to go, 
cut off from the York, beaten before Richmond, — perhaps 
even now surrounded, — and to be butchered to-morrow, till 
the clouds should rain blood ? Were we to retreat one 
hundred miles down the hostile Peninsula, — a battle at 
every rod, a grave at every footstep ? Then I remembered 
the wounded heaped at Gaines's Mill, and how they were 
groaning without remedy, ebbing at every pulse, counting 
the flashing drops, calling for water, for mercy, for death. 
So I found heart ; for I was not buried yet. And somehow 
I felt that fate was to take me, as the great poet took 
Dante, through other and greater horrors. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



The scene presented in Michie's lawn and oak grove, on 
Saturday morning, was terribly picturesque, and character- 
istic of the calamity of war. The well was beset by crowds 
of wou:ided men, perishing of thirst, who made frantic 
eflbrts to reach the bucket, but were borne back by the 
stronger desperadoes. The kitchen was swarming with 
hungry soldiers who begged corn-bread and half-cooked 
dough from the negroes. The shady side-yard was dotted 
with pale, bruised, and bleeding people, who slept out 
their weariness upon the damp grass, forgetful, for the mo- 
ment, of their sores. Ambulances poured through the 
lane, in solemn procession, and now and then, couples of 
privates bore by some wounded officer, upon a canvas 
" stretcher. '^ The lane proving too narrow, at length, for 
the passing vehicles, the gate-posts and fence were torn 
up, and finally, the soldiers made a footway of the hall of 
the dwelling. 

The retreat had been in progress all night, as I had heard 
the wagons through my open windows. By daylight the 
whole army was acquainted with the facts, that we were to 
resign our depot at White House, relinquish the North 
bank of the river, and retire precipitately to the shores of 
the James. A rumor — indignantly denied, but as often 
repeated — prevailed among the teamsters, surgeons, and 
drivers, that the wounded were to be left in the enemy's 
15 (1G£0 



170 CzVMPAIGXS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

hands. It shortly transpired that we were already cut off 
from the Pamunkey. A train had departed for White 
House at dawn, and had delivered its cargo of mortality 
safely ; but a second train, attempting the passage, at 
seven o'clock had been fired into, and compelled to return. 
A tremendous explosion, and a shaft of white smoke that 
flashed to the zenith, informed us, soon afterward, that the 
railroad bridge had been blown up. 

About the same time, the roar of artillery recommenced 
in front, and regiments that had not slept for twenty hours, 
were hurried past us, to take position at the entrenchments. 
A universal fear now found expression, and helpless people 
asked of each other, with pale lips — 

" How far have we to walk to reach the James ? '' 
It was doubtful, at this time, that any one knew the route 
to that river. A few members of the signal corps had ad- 
ventured thither to open communication with the gunboats, 
and a small cavalry party of Casey's division had made a 
foray to New Market and Charles City Court House. But 
it was rumored that Wise's brigade of Confederates was 
now posted at Malvern Hills, closing up the avenue of 
escape, and that the whole right wing of the Confederate 
army was pushing toward Charles City. Malvern Hills, 
the nearest point that could be gained, v/as about twenty 
miles distant, and Harrison's Landing — presumed to be 
our final destination — v/as thirty miles away. To retreat 
over this distance, encumbered with baggage, the wounded 
and the sick, was discarded as involving pursuit, and cer- 
tain calamity. Cavalry might fall upon us at every turn- 
ing, since the greater portion of our own horse had been 
scouting between White House and Hanover, when the 
bridges were destroyed, and was therefore separated from 
the main army. At eight o'clock — weak with fever and 
scarcely able to keep in the saddle — I joined Mr. Ander- 
son of the Herald, and rode toward the front, that I might 
discover the whereabouts of the new engagement. Wind- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 171 

ing through a cart-track in Michie's Woods, we came upon 
fully one third of the whole army, or the remnant of all that 
portion engaged at Gaines's Mill ; — the Reserves, Porter^s 
Corps, Slocum's division, and Meagher's brigade, — per- 
haps thirty-thousand men. They covered the whole of 
Tent's farm, and were drawn up in line, heavily equipped, 
with their colors in position, field officers dismounted, and 
detachments from each regiment preparing hot cofifee at 
certain fires. A very few wagons — and these contain- 
ing only ammunition — stood harnessed beside each regi- 
ment. In many cases the men lay or knelt upon the 
ground. Such hot, hungry, weary wretches, I never 
beheld. During the whole night long they had been cross- 
ing the Chickahominy, and the little sleep vouchsafed 
them had been taken in snatches upon the bare clay. Trav- 
elling from place to place, I saw the surviving heroes of the 
defeat : Meagher looking very yellow and prosaic ; Slo- 
cum, — small, indomitable, active ; Newton, — a little gray, 
a trifle proud, very mercurial, and curiously enough, a 
Virginian; Meade, — lithe, spectacled, sanguine ; and final- 
ly General McCall, as grave, kindly odd and absent, as I 
had found him four months before. The latter worthy was 
one of the first of the Federal Generals to visit Richmond, 
He was taken prisoner the second day afterward, and the 
half of his command was slain or disabled. 

I went to and fro, obtaining the names of killed, wound- 
ed and missing, with incidents of the battle as well as its 
general plan. These I scrawled upon bits of newspaper, 
upon envelopes, upon the lining of my hat, and finally upon 
m}^ shirt wristbands. I was literally filled with notes before 
noon, and if I had been shot at that time, endeavors to ob- 
tain my name would have been extremely difficult. I 
should have had more titles than some of the Chinese prin- 
ces ; some parts of me would have been found fatally 
wounded, and others italicized for gallant behavior. In- 
deed, I should have been shot in every part, taken prisoner 



172 CAMPAIGNS OF A NCpf-COMBATANT. 

at every place, killed outright in every skirmish, and 
marvellously saved through every peril. My tombstone 
would have been some hundreds of muster-rolls and my 
obituary a fortune to a newspaper. I recollect, with some 
amusement, the credit that each regiment took upon itself 
for distinguished behavior. There were few Colonels that 
did not claim all the honors. I fell in with a New Jersey 
brigade, that had been decimated of nearly half its quota, 
and a spruce young Major attempted to convey an idea of 
the battle to me. He said, in brief, that the New Jersey 
brigade, composed mainly of himself and his regiment, and 
some few organizations of little consequence, — although 
numbering ten thousand odd soldiers, — had received the 
whole shock of a quantity of " Rebels." The said " Rebels '^ 
appeared to make up one fourth part of the population of 
the globe. There was no end to them. They seemed to 
be several miles deep, longer and more crooked than the 
Pamunkey, and stood 'with their rear against Richmond, so 
that they couldn't fall back, even if they wanted to. In 
vain did the New Jersey brigade and his regiment attack 
them with ball and bayonet. How the "Rebels" ever 
withstood the celebrated charge of his regiment was alto- 
gether inexplicable. 

In the language of the Major, — " the New Jersey brig- 
ade, — and my regiment, — fit, and fit, and fit, and give 
'em 'get out!' But sir, may I be , well there (ex- 
pression inadequate), we couldn't budge 'em. No, sir! 
(very violently,) not budge 'em, sir! / told the boys to 
walk at 'em with cold steel. Says I : ' Boys, steel'ill fetch 
'em, or nothin' under heaven ! ' Well, sir, at 'em we went, 
— me and the boys. There ain't been no sich charge in 
the whole war ! Not in the whole war, sir ! (intensely fer- 
vid ;) leave it to any impartial observer if there has been ! 
We went up the hill, square in the face of all their artillery, 
musketry, cavalry, sharpshooters, riflemen, — everything, 
sir! Everything! (energetically.) One o' my men over- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 173 

heard the Rebel General say, as we came up : says he, — 
' that's the gamest thing I ever see/ Well ! we butchered 
'em frightful. We must a killed a thousand or two of 'em, 
don't you think so, Adjutant? But, sir, — it was all in 
vain. No go, sir I no, sir, no go ! (impressively.) And the 
New Jersey brigade and my regiment fell back, inch by 
inch, with our feet to the foe (rhetorically.) Is that so, 
boys ? " 

The ''boys," who had meantime gathered around, ex- 
claimed loudly, that it was " true as preachin," and the Ma- 
jor added, in an undertone that his name was spelled * * *. 

''But where were Porter's columns?'^ said I, " and the 
Pennsylvania Reserves ? " 

"I didn't see 'em," said the Major: "I don't think 
they was there. If they had a been, v/hy wa'n't they on 
hand to save my regiment, and the New Jersey brigade ? " 

It would be wrong to infer from these vauntings, that 
the Federals did not fight bravely and endure defeat un- 
shrinkingly. On the contrary, I have never read of higher 
exemplifications of personal and moral courage, than I wit- 
nessed during this memorable retreat. And the young 
Major's boasting did not a whit reduce my estimate of his 
efficiency. For in America, swaggering does not necessarily 
indicate cowardice. I knew a Captain of artillery in Smith's 
division, who was wordier than Gratiano, and who exag- 
gerated like Falstaff. But he was a lion in action, and at 
Lee's Mills and Williamsburg his battery was handled with 
consummate skill. 

From Trent's farm the roadway led by a strip of corduroy, 
through sloppy, swampy woods, to an open place, beyond 
a brook, where Smith's division lay. The firing had almost 
entirely ceased, and we heard loud cheers running up and 
down the lines, as we again ventured within cannon range. 
On this spot, for the second time, the Federals had won a 
decided success. And in so far as a cosmopolitan could 
feel elated, I was proud, for a moment, of the valor of my 
15* 



174 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03IBATANT. 

division. Tlie victors had given me meals and a bed, and 
they had fed my pony when both of us were hungry. But 
the sight of the prisoners and the collected dead, saddened 
me somewhat. 

These two engagements have received the name of the 
First and Second battles of Gelding's Farm. They re- 
sulted from an efifort of Toombs's Georgia brigade to carry 
the redoubt and breastworks of General Smith. Toombs 
was a civilian, and formerly a senator from Georgia. He 
had no military ability, and his troops were driven back 
Avith great slaughter, both on Friday and Saturday. 
Among the i^risoners taken was Colonel Lamar of (I think) 
the *7th Georgia regiment. He passed me, in a litter, 
wounded, as I rode toward the redoubt. 

Lamar was a beautiful man, shaped like a woman, and 
his hair was long, glossy, and wavy with ringlets. He was 
a tiger, in his love of blood, and in character self-willed 
and vehement. He was of that remarkable class of South- 
ern men, of which the noted "Filibuster" Walker was the 
great exponent. I think I may call him an apostle of 
slavery. He believed it to be the destiny of our pale race 
to subdue all the dusky tribes of the earth, and to evangel- 
ize, with the sword, the whole Western continent, to the 
uses of master and man. Such people were called disciples 
of '' manifest destiny." He threw his whole heart into the 
war ; but when I saw him, bloodless, panting, quivering, 
I thought how little the wrath of man availed against the 
justice of God. From Smith's on the right, I kept along a 
military road, in the woods, to Sedgwick's and Richard- 
son's divisions, at Fairoak^. Richardson was subsequently 
slain, at the second battle of Bull Run. He was called 
" Fighting Dick," and on this particular morning was talk- 
ing composedly to his wife, as she was about to climb to 
the saddle. His tent had been taken down, and soldiers 
were placing his furniture in a wagon. A greater contrast 
I never remarked, than the ungainly, awkward, and rough 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON -COMBATANT. 175 

General, with his slight, trim, prett}^ companion. She had 
come to visit him and had remained until commanded to 
retire. I fancied, though I was separated some distance, 
that the little woman wept, as she kissed him good by, 
and he followed her, with frequent gestures of good-hap, 
till she disappeared behind the woods. I do not know that 
such prosaic old soldiers are influerced by the blandishments 
of love ; but ''Fighting Dick '' never wooed death so reck- 
lessly as in the succeeding engagements of New Market and 
Malvern Hills. 

From Seven Pines to the right of Eichardson's head-quar- 
ters, ran a line of alternate breastwork, redoubt, and stock- 
ade. The best of these redoubts was held by Captain 
Petit, with a New York Volunteer battery. I had often 
talked with Petit, for he embodied, as well as any man in 
the army, the martial qualifications of a volunteer. He 
despised order. Nobody cared less for dress and dirt. I 
have seen him, sitting in a hole that he hollowed with his 
hands, tossing pebbles and dust over his head, like another 
Job. He had profound contempt for any man and any 
system that was not " American.'^ I remember asking 
him, one day, the meaning of the gold lace upon the stafl' 
hats of the Irish brigade. 

" Means run like shell ! '^ said Petit, covering me with 
dirt. 

" Don't the Irish make the best soldiers ? " I ventured. 

*■' No !,'' said. Petit, raining pebbles, " I had rather have 
one American than ten Irishmen.'' 

The fighting of Petit was contrary to all rule ; but I think 
that he was a splendid artillery -man. He generally mounted 
the rampart, shook his fist at the enemy, flung up his hat, 
jumped down, sighted the guns himself, threw shells with 
wonderful accuracy, screamed at the gunners, mounted the 
rampart again, halloed, and, in short, managed to do more 
execution, make more noise, attract more attention and 
throw more dirt than anybody in the army. His redoubt 



176 CAMPAIGNS OF A non-co:mbataxt. 

was small, but beautifully constructed, and the parapet was 
heaped with double rows of sandbags. It mounted rilled 
field-pieces, and, at most times, the gunners were lying 
under the pieces, asleep. Not any of the entrenched posts 
among the frontier Indians were more enveloped in wilder- 
ness than this. The trees had been felled in front to give 
the cannon play, but behind and on each side belts of dense, 
dwarf timber covered the boggy soil. 'To the left of Petit, 
on the old field of Seven Pines, lay the divisions of Hooker 
and Kearney, and thither I journeyed, after leaving the re- 
doubtable volunteer. Hooker was a New Englander, re- 
puted to be the handsomest man in the army. He fought 
bravely in the Mexican war, and afterwards retired to 
San Francisco, where he passed a Bohemian existence 
at the Union Club House. He disliked McClellan, was. 
beloved by his men, and was generally known as '' Old 
Joe.'^ He has been one of the most successful Federal 
leaders, and seems to hold a charmed life. In all probability 
he will become Commander-in-chief of one of the grand armies. 
Kearney has passed away sinc§ the date of which I speak. 
He was known as the *' one-armed Devil," and was, by 
odds, the best educated of all the Federal military chiefs. 
But, singularly enough, he departed from all tactics, when 
hotly afield. His personal energy and courage have given 
him renown, and he loved to lead forlorn hopes, or head 
storming-parties, or ride upon desperate adventures. He 
was rich from childhood, and sf)ent much of his life in 
Europe. For a part of this time he served as a cavalry-man 
with the French, in Algiers. In private life he was equally 
reckless, but his tastes were scholarly, and he was generous 
to a fault. Both Kearney and Hooker were kind to the 
reporters, and I owe the dead man many a favor. General 
Daniel Sickles commanded a brigade in this corps. To the 
left, and in the rear of Heintzelman's corps, lay the divisions 
of Casey and Couch, that had relapsed into silence since 
their disgrace at Seven Pines. General Casey was a thin- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 177 

haired old gentleman, too gracious to be a soldier, although 
I believe that he is still in the service. His division conv 
prised the extreme left of the Grand Army, and bordered 
upon a deep, impenetrable bog called " White Oak Swamp.'' 
It was the purpose of McClellan to place this swamp 
between him and the enemy, and defend its passage till his 
baggage and siege artillery had obtained the shelter of the 
gunboats, on the shores of the James. I rode along this 
whole line, to renew my impressions of the position, and 
found that sharp skirmishing was going on at every point. 
When I returned to Savage's, where McClellan's head- 
quarters had temporarily been pitched, I found t\\e last of 
the wagons creaking across the track, and tiling slowly 
southward. The wounded lay in the out-houses, in the trains 
of cars, beside the hedge, and in shade of the trees about the 
dwelling. A little back, beside a wood, lay Lowe's balloon 
traps, and the infantry "guard,'' and cavalry " escort" of 
the Commander-in-chief were encamped close to the new 
provost quarters, in a field beyond the orchard. An ambu- 
la,nce passed me, as I rode into the lane ; it was filled with 
sufierers, and two men with bloody feet, crouched in the 
trail. From the roof of Savage's house floated the red hos- 
pital flag. Savage himself was a quiet Virginia farmer, and 
a magistrate. His name is now coupled 'with a grand 
battle. 

I felt very hungry, at four o'clock, but my weak stomach 
revolted at coarse soldier fare, and I determined to ride 
back to Michie's. I was counselled to beware ; but having 
learned little discretion afield, I cantered off, through a 
trampled tillage of wheat, and an interminable woods. In 
a half hour I rode into the familiar yard ; but the place was 
so ruined that I hardly recognized it. Not a panel of fence 
remained : the lawn was a great pool of slime ; the windlass 
had been wrenched from the well ; a few gashed and expir- 
ing soldiers lay motionless beneath the oaks, the fields were 
littered with the remains of camps, and the old dv/elling 



178 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

stood like a haunted thing upon a blighted plain. The 
idlers, the teamsters, and the tents were gone, — all was 
silence, — and in the little front porc-h sat Mrs. Michie, 
weeping ; the old gentleman stared at the desolation with a 
working face, and two small yellow lads lay dolorously upon 
the steps. They all seemed to brighten up as I appeared 
at the gate, and when I staggered from my horse, both of 
them took my hands. I think that tears came into all our 
eyes at once, and the little Ethiops fairly bellowed. 

''My friends,'' I said, falteringly, " I see how you have 
suffered, and sympathize with you, from my heart." 

''Our beautiful property is ruined," said Mrs. Michie, 
welling up. 

" Yer's five years of labor, — my children's heritage, — 
the home of our old age, — look at it ! " 

The old gentleman stood up gravely, and cast his eyes 
mournfully around. 

" I have nobody to accuse," he said ; " my grief is too 
deep for any hate. This is war ! " 

" What will the girls say when they come back ? " was 
the mother's next sob; "they loved the place: do you 
think they will know it ? " 

I did not know how to reply. They retained my hands, 
and for a moment none of us spoke. 

" Don't think, Mr. Townsend," said the chivalrous old 
gentleman again, "that we like you less because some of 
your country people have stripped us. Mother, where is 
the gruel you made for him ? " 

The good lady, expecting my return, had prepared some 
nourishing chicken soup, and directly she produced it. I 
think she took heart when I ate so plentifully, and we all 
spoke hopefully again. Their kindness so touched me, that 
as the evening came quietly about us, lengthening the 
shadows, and I knew that I must depart, I took both their 
hands again, doubtful what to say. 

"My friends, — may I say, almost my parents ? for you 



CAIitPAIGNS OF A NOI^-COMBATANT. 179 

have been as kind, — good by ! In a day, perhaps, you 
will be with your children again. Richmond will be open 
to you. You may freely go and come. Be comforted by 
these assurances. And when the war is over, — God speed 
the time ! — we may see each other under happier aus- 
pices." 

^' Good by ! '^ said Mr. Michie ; ''if I have a house at 
that time, you shall be welcome.'^ 

" Good by," said Mrs. Michie ; "tell your mother that a 
strange lady in Virginia took good care of you when you 
were sick." 

I waved a final adieu, vaulted down the lane, and the 
wood gathered its solemn darkness about me. When I 
emerged upon Savage's fields, a succession of terrible 
explosions shook the night, and then the flames flared up, 
at points along the railroad. They were blowing up the 
locomotives and burning the cars. At the same hour, 
though 1 could not see it, White House was wrapped in 
fire, and the last sutler, teamster, and cavalry-man had dis- 
appeared from the shores of the Pamunkey. 

I tossed through another night of fever, in the captain's 
tent of the Sturgis Rifles, — McClellan's body guard. And 
somehow, again, I dreamed fitfully of the unburied corpses 
on the field of Gaines's Mill. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A BATTLE SUNDAY. 

In the dim of the morning' of our Lord's Sabbath, the 
twenty-ninth of June, 18G2, I sat in my saddle at Savage's. 
The gloom was very cheerless. A feeling of hopeless vag- 
abondism oppressed me. I remembered the Disinherited 
Knight, the Wandering Jew, Robinson Crusoe, and other 
poor errants in the wide world, and wondered if any of 
them ever looked so ruefully as I, when the last wagon of 
the Grand Army disappeared through the shadow. 

The tent had been taken down at midnight. I had been 
dozing in the saddle, with parched lips and throbbing tem- 
ples, waiting for my comrade. Head-quarters had been 
intending to move, without doing it, for four hours, and he 
informed me that it was well to stay with the Commanding 
General, as the Commanding General kept out of danger, 
and also kept in provisions. I was sick and petulant, and 
finally quarrelled with my friend. He told me, quietly, that 
I would regret my harshness when I should be well again. 
I set off for White Oak, but repented at " Burnt Chim- 
neys," and turned back. In the misty dawn I saw the 
maimed still lying on the ground, wrapped in relics of blank- 
ets, and in one of the outhouses a grim embalmer stood 
amid a family of nude corpses. He dealt with the bodies 
of high officers only ; for, said he — 

" I used to be glad to prepare private soldiers. They 
were wuth a five dollar bill apiece. But, Lord bless you, a 

(180) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 181 

Colonel pays a hundred, and a Brigo.dier-Gencral two hun- 
dred. There's lots of them now, and I have cut the 
acquaintance of everything below a Major. I might,'^ he 
added, " as a great favor, do a Captain, but he must pay a 
Major's price. I insist upon that ! Such windfalls don't 
come every day. There won't be another such killing for 
a century. '^ 

A few horsemen of the escort loitered around head-quar- 
ters. All the tents but one had been removed, and the 
staff crouched sleepily upon the refuse straw. The rain 
began to drizzle at this time, and I unbuckled a blanket to 
wrap about my shoulders. Several people were lying upon 
dry places, here and there, and espying some planks a little 
remote, I tied my horse to a peach-tree, and stretched 
myself languidly upon my back. The bridal couch or the 
throne were never so soft as those knotty planks, and the 
drops that fell upon my forehead seemed to cool my fever. 

I had passed into a sort of cognizant sleep when a harsh, 
loud, cruel voice awakened me, and I seemed to see a great 
Polyphemus, stretching his hands into the clouds, and 
gaping like an earthquake. 

"Boy," 1 heard him say, to a slight figure, near at hand, 

" boy, what are you standing there for? What in -— 

do you want ? " 

"Nothing!" 

" Take it, and go, you I Take it, and go ! " 

I peeped timorously from my place, and recognized tne ^ 
Provost-General of the Grand Army. He had been sleeping 
upon a camp chest, and did not appear to be refreshed 
thereby. 

" I feel sulky as ! " he said to an officer adjoining; 

" I feel bad-humored ! Orderly ! " 

"General!" 

" Whose horses are these ? " 

" I don't know, General ! " 

" Cut every one of 'em loose. Wake up these 

IG 



182 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

loafers with the point of your sabre I Every 

one of 'em ! That's what I call 



boldness ! " 

He strutted off like the great Bomba or the Czar, and 1 
thought I never beheld a more exceptional person in any 
high position. 

With a last look ot Savage's white house, the abandoned 
wretches in the lawn, the blood-red hospital flag, the torn 
track and smouldering cars, I turned my face southward, 
crossed some bare plains, that had- once been fields, and at 
eight o'clock passed down the Williamsburg road, toward 
Bottom Bridge. The original roadway was now a bottomless 
stretch of sand, full of stranded wheels, dead horses, shreds 
of blankets, discarded haversacks, and mounds of spilled 
crackers. Other routes for wagons had been opened across 
fields, over bluffs, around pits and bogs, and through thick- 
ets and woods. The whole country was crossed with 
deeply-rutted roads, as if some immense city had been lifted 
away, and only its interminably sinuous streets remained. 
Near Burnt Chimneys, a creek crossing the road made a ravine, 
and here I overtook the hindmost of the wagons. They had 
been stalled in the gorge, and a provost guard was hurrying 
the laggard teamsters. The creek was muddy beyond 
comparison, and at the next hill-top I passed " Burnt Chim- 
neys," a few dumb witnesses that pointed to heaven. A 
mile or two further, I came to some of the retreating regi- 
ments, and also to five of the siege thirty-twos with which 
Richmond was to have been bombarded. ' The main army 
still lay back at their entrenchments to cover the retreat, 
and at ten o'clock I heard the roar of field guns ; the pur- 
suit had commenced, and the Confederates were pouring 
over the ramparts at Fairoaks. I did not go back ; battles 
were of no consequence to me. I wanted some breakfast. 
If I could only obtain a cup of warm coffee and a fragment 
of meat, I thought that I might recover strength. But 
nothing could be obtained anywhere, for money or charity. 



CAMrAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 183 

The soldiers that I passed looked worn and hungry, for 
then- predecessors had swept the country like herds of 
locusts ; but one cheerful fellow, whom I addressed, pro- 
duced a lump of fat pork that I tried to eat, but made a 
signal failure. All my baggage had been left at Michie's, 
where it remains to this moment. None cared to be hos- 
pitable to correspondents at this despondent hour, and a 
horrible idea of starvation took possession of my mind. A 
mile from White Oak Swamp, some distance back of the 
road, lay the Engineer Brigade. They were now on the 
eve of breaking camp, and when I reached Colonel McCloud 
Murphy's, his chests were packed, and all his provisions 
had gone ahead. He gave me, however, a couple of hard 
crackers and a draught of whiskey and quinine, whereby I 
rallied for a moment. At General Woodbury's I observed 
a middle-aged lady, making her toilet by a looking-glass 
hung against the tent-pole. She seemed as careful of her 
personal appearance, in this trying time, as if she had been 
at some luxurious court. There were several women on 
the retreat, and though the guns thundered steadily behind, 
they were never flurried, but could have received company, 
or accepted offers of marriage, with the utmost compla- 
cency. If there was any one that rouged, I am sure that 
no personal danger would have disturbed her while she 
heightened her roses ; and she would have tied up her back 
hair in defiance of shell or grape. 

At Casey's ancient head-quarters, on the bluff facing 
White Oak Swamp, I found five correspondents. We fra- 
ternized immediately, and they all pooh-poohed the -battle, 
as such an old story that it would be absurd to ride back 
to the field. We knew, however, that it was occurring at 
Peach Orchard, on a part of the old ground at Fairoaks. 
These gentlemen were in rather despondent moods, and 
there was one who opined that we were all to be made 
prisoners of war. In his own expressive way of putting it, 
we were to be " gobbled up." This person was stout and 



184: CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, 



inclined to panting and perspiration. He wore glasses upon 
a most pugnacious nose, and his large, round head was cov- 
ered with short, bristly, jetty hair. 

" I promised my wife,'^ said this person, who may be 
called Cindrey, "to stay at home after the Burnsidc busi- 
ness. The Burnside job was very nearly enough for me. 
In fact I should have quite starved on the Burnside job, if I 
hadn't took the fever. And the fever kept me so busy that 
I forgot how hungry I was. So I lived over that.'^ 

At this point he took off his glasses and wiped his face ; 
the water was running down his cheeks like a miniature 
cataract, and his great neck seemed to emit jets of perspira- 
tion. 

'' Well,'' he continued, " the Burnside job wasn't enough 
for me ; I must come out again. I must follow the young 
Napoleon. And the young Napoleon has made a pretty 
mess of it. I never expect to get home any more ; I know 
1 shall be gobbled up ! " 

A youngish, oldish, oddish fellow, whom the}^ called 
*•' Pop," here told Mr. Cindrey to keep his pulse up and take 
a drink. A tall, large person, in semi-quaker garb, who 
did not look unlike George Fox, run to seed, said, with a 
flourish, that these battles were nothing to Shiloh. He was 
attached to the provincial press, and had been with the 
army of the West until recently. Without any exception, 
he was the " fussiest," most impertinent, most disagreea- 
ble man that I ever knew. He always made a hero of him- 
self in his reports, and if I remember rightl}^ their headings 
ran affeer this fashion : — 

Tremendous Battle at Roanoke ! The Correspondent of 
THE Blunderbuss hoists the National Flag above the REBEL 
RAMPARTS!!!" or agSiin— Grand Victory at Shiloh! 
3fr. Twaddle, our Special Correspondent, TAKEN PRIS- 
ONER ! ! ! He ESCAPES ! ! I He is fired upon ! ! ! He wrig- 
gles through four swamps and SEVEN HOSTILE CAMPS ! 
He is AGAIN CAPTURED ! He STRANGLES the sentry! He 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COi^IBATAXT. 185 

drinks the Rebel Commander, Philpot, BLIND! Philpot 
gives him the password ! ! jS^" Philpot compliments the 
Blunderbuss. „^S OUE Correspondent gains the Gunboats! 
He is TAKEN ABOARD ! His welcome ! Description of HIS 
BOOTS ! Remarks, etc., etc., ETC ! ! ! '' 

This man was arxxious to regulate not only his own news- 
paper, but he aspired to control the entire press, xind his 
self adulation was incessant. He rung all the changes 
upo'n Shiloh. Every remark suggested some incident of 
Shiloh. He was a thorough Shilohite, and I regretted in 
my heart that the ''Rebels'' had not shut him away at 
Shiloh, that he might have enjoyed it to the end of his 
days. 

The man "Pop " produced some apple whiskey, and we 
repaired to a spring, at the foot of the hill, where the man 
"Pop" mixed a cold punch, and we drank in rotation. I 
don't think that Cindrey enjoyed his draught, for it filtered 
through his neck as if he had sprung aleak there ; but the 
man Twaddle might have taken a tun, and, as the man 
"Pop " said, the effect ^ould have been that of " pouring 
whiskey through a knot-hole." It was arranged among 
our own reporters, that I, being sick, should be the first of- 
the staff to go to New York. The man "Pop" said jo- 
cosely, that I might be allowed to die in the bosom of my 
family. The others gave me their notes and lists, but none 
could give me what I most needed, — a morsel of food. 
At eleven o'clock our little party crossed White Oak Creek. 
There was a corduroy bridge upon which the teams trav- 
elled, and a log bridge of perilous unsteadiness for foot pas- 
sengers. But the soldiers were fording the stream in great 
numbers, and I plunged my horse into the current so that 
he spattered a group of fellows, and one of them lunged at 
me with a bayonet. Beyond the creek and swamp, on the 
hillsides, baggage wagons and batteries were parked in im- 
mense numbers. The troops were taking positions along 
the edge of the bottom, to oppose incursions of the enemy, 
IG* 



186 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

when they attempted pursuit, and I was told that the line 
extended several miles westward, to New Market Cross 
Roads, where, it was thought, the Confederates would 
march out from Richmond to offer battle. The roadway, 
beyond the swamp, was densely massed with horse, foot, 
cannon, and teams. The latter still kept toward the James, 
but the nags suffered greatly from lack of corn. Only in- 
dispensable material had been hauled from the Chickahom- 
iny, and the soldiers who fought the ensuing protracted 
battles were exhausted from hunger. Everything had an 
uncomfortable, transient, expectant appearance, and the 
feeble people that limped toward the ultima iliule looked 
fagged and wretched. 

There were some with balls in the groin, thigh, leg, or 
ankle, that made the whole journey, dropping blood at 
every step. They were afraid to lie down, as the wounded 
limbs might then grow rigid and stop their progress. While 
I pitied these maimed persons, I held the sick in greater 
sympathy. The troubles of the one v/ere local ; the others 
were pained in every bone. Bullets are fearful tenants, but 
fevers are worse. And some of the flushed, staggering 
folk, that reeled along the roadside, were literally out of 
their minds. They muttered and talked incoherently, and 
shouted ribald songs till my blood curdled to see them. At 
the first house on the right of the road, a half-mile past the 
Ci^ek, I noticed many idle soldiers climbing the white pal- 
ings, to watch something that lay in the yard. A gray- 
haired man was expiring, under the coolness of a spreading 
tree, and he was even now in the closing pangs. A com- 
rade at his side bathed his brow with cool water, but I saw 
that he would shortly be with Lazarus or Dives. His hands 
were stretched stiffly by his sides, his feet were rigidly ex- 
tended, and death was hardening into his bleached face. 
The white eyeballs glared sightlessly upward : he was look- 
ing into the other world. 

The heat at this time was so intolerable that our party, 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03IBATANT. 187 

in lieu of any other place of resort, resolved to go to the 
woods. The sun set in heaven like a fiery furnace, and we 
sweat at every pore. I was afraid, momentarily, of sun- 
stroke, and my horse was bathed in foam. Some compa- 
nies of cavalry were sheltered in the edges of the woods, 
and, having secured our nags, we penetrated the depths, 
and spread out our blankets that we might lie down. But 
no breath of air stirred the foliage. The *'hot and copper 
sky '' found counterpart in the burning earth, and innumer- 
able flies and insects fastened their fangs in our flesh. 
Cindrey was upon the rack, and it seemed to me that he 
possessed a sort of capillary perspiration, for the drops 
stood at tips of each separate bristle. He appeared to" be 
passing from the solid to the fluid state, and I said, ungen- 
erously, that the existing temperature was his liquifying 
point. 

" Then,^^ said the man " Pop,'' with a youngish, oldish 
smile, " we may as well liquor up.'' 

'' I don't drink ! " said Twaddle, with a flourish. "Dur- 
ing all the perilous hours of Shiloh, I abstained. But I am 
willing to admit, in respect to heat, that Shiloh is nowhere 
at present. And, therefore, I drink with a protest." 

" No man can drink from my bottle, with a protest," said 
'Top." ''It isn't regular, and implies coercion. Now I 
don't coerce anybody, particularly you." 

'' Oh ! " said Twaddle, drinking like a fish, or, as '' Pop " 
remarked, enough to float a gunboat; ''oh! we often 
chaffed each other at Shiloh." 

" If you persist in reminding me of Shiloh," blurted Cin- 
drey, " you'll be the ruin of me, — you and the heat and the 
flies. You'll have me dissolving into a dew." 

Here he wiped his forehead, and killed a large blue fly, 
that was probing his ear. We all resolved to go to sleep, 
and Twaddle said that he slept like a top, in the heat of 
action, at Shiloh. "Pop" asked him, youngishly, to be 
kind enough to capture no redoubts while we slumbered. 



188 CA3irAIGi\S OF A NOX~C031BATANT. 

and not to raise the national flag over any ramparts for fif- 
teen minutes. Then he grinned oldishly, and commenced 
to snore, with his flask in his bosom. I am certain that no- 
body ever felt a tithe of the pain, hunger, heat, and weari- 
ness, which agonized me, when I awoke from a half-hour's 
sweltering nap. My clothing w^as soaking with water ; I 
Avas almost blind ; somebody seemed to be sawing a section 
out of my head ; m}^ throat was hot and crackling ; mj'- 
stomach knew all the pangs of emptiness ; I had scarcel}'' 
strength to motion away the pertinacious insects. A sol- 
dier gave me a trifle of boiling water from his canteen ; but 
I gasped for air ; we were living in a V9.cuum. Sahara 
could not have been so fierce and burning. Two of us 
started ofi' to find a spring. We made our way from shade 
to shade, expiring at every step, and finally, at the base of 
the hill, on the brink of the swamp, discovered a rill of 
tepid water, that evaporated before it had trickled a hun- 
dred yards. If a sleek and venomous water-snake — for 
there were thousands of them hereabout — had coiled in 
the channel, I would still have sucked the draught, bending 
down as I did. Then I bethought me of my pony. He had 
neither been fed nor watered for twenty hours, and I has- 
tened to obtain him from his place along the woodside. To 
my terror, he was gone. Forgetful of my weakness, I 
passed rapidly, hither and thither, inquiring of cavalry-men, 
and entertaining suspicions of every person in the vicinity. 
Finally, I espied him in charge of a rough, thievish sabre- 
man, who aflected not to see me. I went up to the animal, 
and pulled the reins from his shoulder, to discover the 
brand mark, — '' U. S." As I surmised, he had not been 
branded, and I turned indignantly upon the fellow : — 

" My friend, how came you by this horse ? '^ 

" Quartermaster! '^ said the man, guiltily. 

"No sir! He belongs to me. Take ofi* that cavalry- 
saddle, and find mine, immediately.'' 

" Not if the court knows itself,'' said the man — " and it 
thinks it do ! " 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 189 

" Then/^ said I, white with rage, " I shall report yon at 
once, for theft/' 

" You may, if you want to," replied the man, carelessly. 

I struck off at once for the new Provost Quarters, at a 
farm-house, close by. The possible failure to regain my 
animal, filled me with rueful thoughts. How was I, so 
dismounted, to reach the distant river ? I should die, or 
starve, on the way. I thought I should faint, when I came 
to the end of the first field, and leaned, tremblingly, against 
a tree. I caught myself sobbing, directl}', like a girl, and 
my mind ran upon the coolness of my home with my own 
breezy bedroom, soft paintings, and pleasant books. These 
themes tortured me with a consciousness of my folly. I 
had forsaken them for the wickednesses of this unhappy 
campaign. And my body was to blacken by the road-side, — 
the sable birds of prey were to be my mourners. 

But, looking through my tears, a moving something 
passed between me and the sky. A brownish bay pony, 
trailing a fence-rail by his halter, and browsing upon patches 
of oats. I whistled thrice and the faithful animal trotted 
to my feet, and extended his great nose to be rubbed. I 
believe that this horse was the only living thing in the army 
that sympathized with me. He knew that I was sick, and 
1 thought once, that, like the great dogs of Saint Bernard, 
he was about to get upon his knees, that I might the more 
readily climb upon his back. He did, however, stand 
quietly, while I mounted, and I gave him a drink at the 
foot of the hill. Returning, I saw the soldier, wrongfully 
accused, eyeing me from his haunt beneath the trees. I at 
once rode over to him, and apologized for my mistake. 

" Never mind,'' said the man, complacently. " You was 
all right. I might a done the same thing-. Fact is," he 
added, ''I did hook this boss, but I knew you wan't the 
party." 

During the rest of the day I travelled disconsolately, up 
and down the road, winding in and out of the lines of teams. 



190 CAMPAIG>JS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

I was assured that it would be impossible to get to the 
James till next day, as no portion of that army had yet ad- 
vanced so far. The moody minutes of that afternoon made 
the longest part of my life, while the cannon at Peach 
Orchard and Savage's, roared and growled incessantly. 
Toward the close of the day I fell in with Captain Hill, of 
the New York Saratoga regiment, who gave me the outline 
of the fight. 

The Confederates had discovered that we were falling- 
back, by means of a balloon, of home manufacture, — the 
first they had been able to employ during the entire war. 
They appeared at our entrenchments on Sunday morning, 
and finding them deserted, commenced an irregular pursuit, 
whereby, they received terrible volleys of musketry from 
ambuscaded regiments, and retired, in disorder, to the ram- 
parts. This was the battle of " Peach Orchard, '' and was 
disastrous to the Southerners. In the afternoon, they 
again essayed to advance, but more cautiously. The 
Federals, meantime, lay in order of battle upon Savage's, 
Dudley's, and Crouch's farms, their right resting on the 
Chickahominy, their centre on the railroad, and their left 
beyond the Williamsburg turnpike. For a time, an artillery 
contest ensued, and the hospitals at Savage's, where the 
wounded lay, were thrice fired upon. The Confederates 
finally penetrated the dense woods that belted this country, 
and the battle, at nightfall, became fervid and sanguinary. 
The Federals held their ground obstinately, and fell back, 
covered by artillery, at midnight. The woods were set on 
fire, in the darkness, and conflagration painted fiery terrors 
on the sky. The dead, littered all the fields and woods. 
The retreating army had marked its route with corpses. 
This was the battle of " Savage's," and neither party has 
called it a victory. 

During the rest of the night the weary fugitives were 
crossing White Oak Creek and Swamp. Toward daybreak, 
the last battery had accomplished the passage ; tlie bridge 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 191 

was destroj^ed ; and preparations were made to dispute the 
pursuit in the morning. 

I noted these particulars and added to my lists of dead and 
captured. At dusk I was about to sleep, supperless, upon 
the bare ground, when my patron, Colonel Murphy, again 
came in sight, and invited me to occupy a shelter-tent, on 
the brow of the hill at White Oak. To my great joy, he 
was able to offer me some stev/ed beef, bread and butter, 
and hot coffee. I ate voraciously, seizing the food- in my 
naked fingers, and rending it like a beast. 

The regiment of Colonel Murphy was composed of 
laborers, and artificers of every possible description. There 
were blacksmiths, moulders, masons, carpenters, boat- 
builders, joiners, miners, machinists, riggers, and rope- 
makers. They could have bridged the Mississippi, rebuilt 
the Tredegar works, finished the Tower of Babel, drained 
the Chesapeake, constructed the Great Eastern, paved 
Broadway, replaced the Grand Trunk railroad, or tunnelled 
the Straits of Dover. I have often thought that the real 
greatness of the Northern army lay in its ingenuity and 
industry, not in its military qualifications. 

Our conversation turned upon these matters, as we sat 
before the ColonePs tent in the evening, and a Chaplain 
represented the feelings of the North in this manner : " We 
must whip them. We have got more money, more men, 
more ships, more ingenuity. They are bound to knuckle at 
last. If we have to lose man for man with them, their host 
will die out before ours. And we wont give up the Union, 

— not a piece of it big enough for a bird or a bee to cover, 

— though we reduce these thirty millions one half, and 
leave only the women and children to inherit the land.'' 
The heart of the army was now cast down, though a large 
portion of the soldiers did not know why we were falling 
back. I heard moody, despondent, accusing mutterings, 
around the camp-fires, and my own mind was full of grief 
and bitterness. It seemed that our old flag had descended 



192 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-yCOMBATANT. 

to a degenerate people. It was not now, as formerly, a 
proud recollection that I was an American. If I survived 
the retreat, it would become my mission to herald the evil 
tidings through the length and breadth of the land. If I 
fainted in their pursuit, a loathsome prison, or a grave in the 
trenches, were to be my awards. When I lay down in a 
shelter-tent, rolling from side to side, I remembered that this 
was the Sabbath day. A battle Sabbath ! How this din 
and slaughter contrasted with my dear old Lord's days in 
the prayerful parsonage ! The chimes in the vfhite spire, 
where the pigeons cooed in the hush of the singing, were 
changed to cannon peals ; and the boys that dozed in the 
"Amen corner,'*' were asleep forever in the trampled grain- 
fields. The good parson, whose clauses were not less 
truthful, because spoken through his nose, now blew the 
loud trumpet for the babes he had baptized, to join the Cap- 
tains of fifties and thousands ; and while the feeble old 
women in the side pews made tremulous responses to the 
prayer for " thy soldiers fighting in thy cause," the banners 
of the Republic were craped, dusty, and bloody, and the 
scattered regiments were resting upon their arms for the 
shock of the coming dawn. 

Thus I thought, tossing and talking through the long 
watches, and toward morning, when sleep brought fever- 
dreams, a monstrous something leered at me from the black- 
ness, saying, in a sort of music — 

" Gobbled up I Gobbled up I '' 



CHAPTEK XVIII 



BY THE RIVERSIDE. 



A CRASH and a stimDing shock, as of a falling sphere, 
aroused me at nine o'clock. A shell had burst in front of 
our tent' and the enemy's artillery was thundering from 
Casey's old hill, beyond the swamp. As I hastily drew on 
my boots, — for I had not otherwise undressed, — I had 
opportunity to remark one of those unaccountable panics 
v/hich develop among civilian soldiers. The camps were 
plunged into disorder. As the shells dropped here and 
there, among the tents and teams, the wildest and most 
fearful deeds were enacted. Here a caisson blew up, tear- 
ing the horses to pieces, and whirling a cannoneer among 
the clouds. There an ammunition wagon exploded, and the 
air seemed to be filled with fragments of wood, iron, and 
flesh. A boy stood at one of the fires, combing out his ■ 
matted hair ; suddenly his head fiew off, spattering the 
brains, and the shell — which we could not see — exploded 
in a piece of woods, mutilating the trees. The effect upon 
the people around me was instantaneous and appalling. 
Some, that were partially dressed, took to their heels, hug- 
ging a medley of clothing. The teamsters climbed into the 
saddles, and shouted to their nags, whipping them the 
while. If the heavy wheels hesitated to revolve, they left 
horses and vehicles to their fate, taking them.selves to the 
woods ; or, as in some cases, cut traces and harness, and 
galloped away like madmen. In a twinkling our camps 
17 (193) 



194 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

were almost deserted, and the fields, woods, and roads v/ere 
alive with fugitives, rushing, swearing, falling, and tram- 
pling, while the fierce bolts fell momentarily among them, 
making havoc at every rod. 

To join this flying, dying mass was my first impulse ; but 
after-thought reminded me that it would be better to remain. 
I must not leave ray horse, for I could not walk the whole 
long wa}^ to the James, and the fever had so reduced me 
that I hardly cared to keep the little life remaining. I 
almost marvelled at my coolness ; since, in the fulness of 
strength and health, I should have been one of the first of 
the fugitives ; whereas, I now looked interestedly upon the 
exciting spectacle, and wished that it could be daguerreo- 
typed. 

Before our artillery could be brought to play, the enemy, 
emboldened at his success, pushed a column of infantry 
down the hill, to cross the creek, and engage us on our 
camping-ground. For a time I believed that he would be 
successful, and in that event, confusion and ruin would have 
overtaken the Unionists. The gray and butternut lines 
appeared over the brow of the hill, — they wound at double 
quick through the narrow defile, — the}^ poured a volley 
into our camps when half-way down, and under cover of the 
smoke they dashed forward impetuously, with a loud huzza. 
The artillery beyond them kept up a steady fire, raining 
shell, grape, and canister over their heads, and ploughing 
the ground on our side, into zigzag furrows, — rending the 
trees, shattering the ambulances, tearing the tents to tat- 
ters, slaying the horses, butchering the men. Directly 
Captain Mott's battery v/as brought to bear ; but before he 
could open fire, a solid shot struck one of his twelve- 
pounders, breaking the trunnion and splintering the wheels. 
In like manner one of his caisson-s blew up, and I do not 
think that he was able to make any practise whatever. A 
division of infantry v/as now marched forward, to engage 
the Confederates at the creek side ; but two of the regi- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 195 

ments — and I think that one was the 20th New York — 
turned bodily, and could not be rallied. The moment was 
full of significance, and I beheld these failures with breath- 
less suspense. In five minutes the pursuers would gain the 
creek, and in ten, drive our dismayed battalions, like chaff 
before the wind. I hurried to my horse, that I might be 
ready to escape. The shell and ball still made music around 
me. I buckled up my saddle with tremulous fingers, and 
put my foot upon the stirrup. But a cheer recalled me and 
a great clapping of hands, as at some clever performance 
in the amphitheatre. I looked again. A battery from our 
position across the road, had opened upon the Confederate 
infantry, as they reached the very brink of the swamp. 
For a moment the ba^^onets tossed wildly, the dense col- 
umn staggered like a drunken man, the flags rose and fell, 
and then the line fell back disorderly. At that instant a 
body of Federal infantry, that I had not seen, appeared, as 
by invocation ; their steel fell flashingly, a column of smoke 
enveloped them, the hills and skies seemed to split asunder 
with the shock, — and when I looked again, the road was 
strewn with the dying and dead ; the pass had been de- 
fended. 

As the batteries still continued to play, and as the pros- 
pect of uninterrupted battle during the day was not a whit 
abated, I decided to resume my saddle, and, if possible, 
make my way to the James. The geography of the coun- 
try, as I had deciphered it, satisfied me that I must pass 
'' New Market,'' before I could rely upon my personal 
safety. New Market was a paltry cross-road's hamlet, 
some miles ahead, but as near to Eichmond as White Oak 
Creek. The probabilities were, that the Confederates would 
endeavor to intercept us at this point, and so attack us in 
flank and rear. As I did not witness either of these battles, 
though I heard the discharge of every musket, it may be as 
well to state, in brief, that June 30 was marked by the 
bloodiest of all the Eichmond straggles, excepting, possibly, 



196 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-C05IBATANT. 

Gaines's Mill. While the Southern artillery engaged 
Franklin's corps, at White Oak Crossing, and their left 
made several unavailing attemps to ford the creek with in- 
fantry, — their entire right and centre, marched out the 
Charles City Road, and gave impetuous battle at New- 
Market. The accounts and the results indicate that the 
Federals won the day at New Market, sheerly by good 
fighting. They were parching with thirst, weak with hun- 
ger, and it might have been supposed that reverses had 
broken their spirit. On the contrary they did not fall back 
a rod, during the Vv^hole day, and at evening Heintzelman's 
corps crowned their success by a grand charge, whereat 
the Confederates broke and were pursued three miles 
toward Richmond. The gunboats Galena and Aroostook, 
lying in the James at Turkey Bend, opened fire at three 
o'clock, and killed promiscuously, Federals and Confeder- 
ates. But the Southern soldiers were superstitous as to 
gunboats, and they could not be made to approach within 
range of the Galena's monstrous projectiles. 

I shall always recall mj journey from White Oak to Har- 
rison's Bar, as marked by constantly increasing beauties of 
scenery, and terrors of event. At every hoof-fall I was 
leaving the low, boggy, sparsely settled Chickahominy 
region, for the high farm-lands of the James. The dwell- 
ings, as I progressed, became handsome ; the negro- quar- 
ters were less like huts and cattle-sheds ; the ripe wheat- 
fields stretched almost to the horizon ; the lawns and lanes 
were lined with ancient shade-trees ; there were picturesque 
gates and lodges ; the fences were straight and white- 
washed, there were orchards, heavy with crimson apples, 
where the pumpkins lay beneath, like globes of gold, in 
the rows of amber corn. Into this patriarchal and luxuri- 
^ant country, the retreating army wound like a great devour- 
ing serpent. It was to me, the coming back of the beaten 
jetters through MidgarcU, or the repulse of the fallen angels 
from heaven, trampling down the river-sides of Eden. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 11)7 

They rode their team-horses into the wavy wheat, and in 
some places, where the reapers had been at work, they 
dragged the sheaves from the stacks, and rested upon them. 
Hearing of the coming of the army, the proprietors had 
vainly endeavored to gather their crops, but the negroes 
would not work, and they had not modern implements, 
whereby to mow the grain rapidly. The profanation of 
those glorious stretches of corn and rye were to me some 
of the most melancholy episodes of the war. No mind can 
realize how the grain-fields used to ripple, when the fresh 
breezes blew up and down the furrows, and tho hot suns 
of that almost tropical climate, had yielded each separate 
head till the whole landscape was like a bright cloud, or a 
golden sea. The tall, shapely stalks seemed to reach out 
imploringly, like sunny-haired virgins, waiting to be gathered 
into the arms of the farmer. They were the Sabine women, 
on the eve of the bridal, when the insatiate Romans tore 
them away and trampled them. The Indian corn was yet 
green, but so tall that the tasselled tops showed how cun- 
ningly the young ears were ripening. There were melons 
in the corn-rows, that a week would have developed, but 
the soldiers dashed them open and sucked the sweet water. 
They threw clubs at the hanging apples till the ground was 
littered with them, and the hogs came afield to gorge ; 
they slew the hogs and divided the fresh pork among 
themselves. As 1 saw, in one place, dozens of huge 
German cavalry-men, asleep upon bundles of wheat, I 
recalled their Frankisli forefathers, swarming down the 
Apennines, upon Italy. 

The air was so sultry during a part of the day, that one 
was constantly athirst. But there was a belt of country, 
four miles or more in width, where there seemed to be 
neither rills nor wells. Happily, the roads were, in great 
part, enveloped in stately timber, and the shade was very 
grateful to men and horses. The wounded still kept with 
us, and many that were fevered. They did not complain 
17* 



198 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

with words ; but their red eyes and painful pace told all the 
story. If we came to rivulets, they used to lie upon their 
bellies, along the margins, with their heads in the flowing 
water. The nags were so stiff and hot, that, when they 
were reined into creeks, they refused to go forward, and my 
brown animal once dropped upon his knees, and quietly 
surveyed me, as I pitched upon my hands, floundering in 
the pool. I remember a stone dairy, such as are found 
upon Pennsylvania grazing farms, where I stopped to drink. 
It lay up a lane, some distance from the road, and two enor- 
mous tulip poplar trees sheltered and half-concealed it. A 
tiny creek ran through the dairy, over cool granite slabs, 
and dozens of earthen milk-bowls lay in the water, with the 
mould of the cream brimming at the surface. A pewter 
drinking-mug hung to a peg at the side, and there were 
wooden spoons for skimming, straining pails, and great 
ladles of gourd and cocoanut. A cooler, tidier, trimmer 
dairy, I had not seen, and I stretched out my body upon the 
dry slabs, to drink from one of the milk-bowls.* The cream 
was sweet, rich, and nourishing, and I was so absorbed di- 
rectly, that I did not heed the footfalls of a tall, broad, vig- 
orous man, who said in a quiet way, but with a deep, sono- 
rous voice, and a decided Northern twang — 

'' Friend, you might take the mug. Some of your com- 
rades will want to drink from that bowl.'' 

I begged his pardon hastily, and said that I supposed he 
was the proprietor. 

" I reckon that I must give over my ownership, while the 
army hangs around here," said the man ; '' but I must en- 
dure what I can't cure." 

Here he smiled grimly, and reached down the pewter 
cup. Then he bent over a fresh bowl, and dexterously 
dipped the cup full of milk, without seeming to break the 
cream. 

" Drink that," he said ; " and if there's any better milk 
in these parts, I want to know the man." 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 199 

lie looked at me critically, while I emptied the vessel, 
and seemed to enjoy my heartiness. 

"If you had been smart enough to come this way, victo- 
rious,'' added the man, straightforwardly, "instead of being 
out-generalled, Vv^hipped, and driven, I should enjoy the loss 
of my property a great deal more ! " 

There was an irresistible heartiness in his tone and man- 
ner. He had, evidently, resolved to bear the misfortunes 
of war bravely. 

" You are a Northern man? " I said, inquiringly. 

"How do you know ?" 

" There are no such dairies in Virginia ; a Virginian never 
dipped a mug of milk after your fashion ; you haven't the 
Virginia inflection, and very weak Virginia principles." 

The man laughed dryly, and filled himself a cup, which 
he drank sedately. 

" I reckon joa are correct," he said ; "pretty much cor- 
rect, any way. I'm a New Yorker, from the Mohawk 
Valley, and I have been showing these folks how they can't 
farm. If there's anybody that farms better than I do, I 
want to know the man ! " 

He looked at the flowing water, the clean slabs and walls, 
the shining tins, and smacked his lips satisfactorily. I 
asked him if he farmed with negroes, and if the prejudices 
of the country affected either his social or industrial inter- 
ests. He answered that he was obliged to employ negroes, 
as he had thrice tried the experiment of working with 
whites, but with ill success. 

"/would have kept 'em," he added, in his great voice, 
closing a prodigious fist, " but the men would not stay. I 
couldn't make the neighbors respect them. There was no- 
body for 'em to associate with. They were looked upon as 
niggers, and they got to feel it after a while. So I have 
had only niggers latterly ; but I get more work from them 
than any other man in these parts. If there's anybody that 
gets more work out of niggers than I do, I want to know 
the man ! " 



200 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

There was a sort of hard, hearty defiance about him, typ- 
ical of his severe, angular race, and I studied his large limbs 
and grim, full face with curious admiration. He told me 
that he hired his negro hands from the surrounding slave- 
owners, and that he gave them premiums upon excess of 
work, approximating to wages. In this way they were en- 
couraged to habits of economy, perseverance, and spright- 
liness. 

'' I don't own a nigger,'^ he said, " not one I But I don't 
think a nigger's much too good to be a slave. I won't be 
bothered with owning 'em. And I won't be conquered 
into ' the institution.' I said, when I commenced, that I 
should not buy niggers, and I won't buy niggers, because 
I said so I As to social disadvantages, every Northern man 
has 'em here. They called me an abolitionist ; and a fel- 
low at the hotel in Richmond did so to my face. I knocked 
him into a heap, and nobody has meddled with me since. 
" Of course," he said, after a moment, '' it won't do to in- 
flame these people. These people are like my bulls, and 
you mustn't shake a red stick at 'em. Besides, I'm not a 
fanatic. I never was. My wife's one of these people, and 
I let her think as she likes. But, if there's anybody in 
these parts that wants to interfere with me, I should like to 
know the man ! " 

The contemptuous tone in which he mentioned " these 
people " amused me infinitely, and I believed that his reso- 
lute, indomitable manner would have made him popular in 
any society. He was shrewd, withal, and walked beside 
me to his gate. When the regiments halted to rest, by the 
wayside, he invited the field officers to the dairy, and so 
obtained guards to rid him of depredators. He would have 
escaped very handsomely, but the hand of war was not 
always so merciful, and a part of the battle of Malvern Hills 
was fought upon his property. I have no doubt that he 
submitted unflinchingly, and sat more stolidly amid the 
wreck than old Marius in battered Carthage. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 201 

Until two o'clock in the afternoon I rode leisurely south- 
ward, under a scorching sky, but still bearing up, though 
aflame with fever. The guns thundered continuously be- 
hind, and the narrow roads were filled, all the way, with 
hurrying teams, cavalry, cannon, and foot soldiers. I 
stopped, a while, by a white frame church, — primly, 
squarely built, — and read the inscriptions upon the tombs 
uninterestedly. Some of the soldiers had pried open the 
doors, and a wounded Zouave was delivering a mock ser- 
mon from the pulpit. Some of his comrades broke up the 
meeting by singing — 

"John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave," 

and then a Major ordered them out, and put a guard upon 
the building. The guard played cards upon the door sills. 

I was frequently obliged, by the crowded state of the 
roads, to turn aside into woods, fens, and fields, and so 
make precarious progress. Sometimes I strayed, unwit- 
tingly, a good way from the army, and recovered the route 
with difficulty. On one of these occasions, I was surprised 
by a person in civil dress, who seemed to shoot up out of 
the ground. He was the queerest, grimest, fearfulest man 
that I have ever known, and, at first, I thought that the 
arch fiend had appeared before me. The wood was very 
deep here, and there were no wayfarers but we two. It 
was quite still ; but now and then we heard the rumble of 
wagons, and the crack of teamster's whips. The man in 
question wore dead black beard, and his eyebrows were of 
the same intense, lustreless hue. So were his eyes and his 
jiair ; but the latter formed a circle or cowl around his head. 
He had a pale skin, his fingers were long and bony, and he 
rode dexterously in and out, among the tree boles, with his 
hat in his hand. His horse was as black as himself, and, 
together, they made a half-brigandish, half-satanic appear^ 
ance. 



202 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

I reined in sharply, when I saw this person, and he looked 
at me like the evil-eye, through his great owlish orbs. 

'' Good day," he said, in profound basso, as low I think 
as '' double G,'' and when he opened his mouth, I saw that 
his teeth were very white. 

I saluted him gravely, and, not without a shudder, rode 
beside him. He proved to be a sort of Missionary, from 
the Evangelical religious denominations of the North, to in- 
quire into the spiritual condition of the soldiers. Camps 
were full of such people, but I had not found any man who 
appeared to be less qualified for his vocation ; to have such 
a figure at one's deathbed, would be like a foretaste of the 
great fiend. He had a fashion of working his scalp half 
way down to his eyes, as he spoke, and when he smiled, — 
though he never laughed aloud, — his eyelashes did not con- 
tract, as with most people, but rather expanded, till his eye- 
balls projected from his head. On such occasions, his 
white teeth were revealed like a row of fangs, and his lep- 
rous skin grew yet paler. 

"The army has not even the form of godliness,'' said 
this man. In the course of his remarks, he had discovered 
that I was a correspondent, and at once turned the conver- 
sation into a politico-religious channel. 

" The form of godliness is gone," said the man again in 
" double G." '' This is a calamitous fact ! I would it were 
not so ! I grieve to state it ! But inquiry into the fact, 
has satisfied me that the form of godliness does not exist. 
Ah!" 

When the man said " Ah ! " I thought that my horse 
would run away, and really, the tone was like the deep con- 
juration in Hamlet : " sivear-r-r-r ! " 

" For example," said the man, who told me that his 
name was Dimpdin, — "I made some remarks to the 1st 
New Jersey, on Sabbath week. The field officers directed 
the men to attend ; I opened divine service with a feeling 
hymn ; a very feeling hymn ! A long measure hymn ! By 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 203 

^lontgomeiy ! I commenced earnestly in prayer. In appro- 
priate prayer ! I spoke advisedl}^ for a short hour. What 
were the results ? The deplorable results ? There were 
men, sir, in that assembly, who went to sleep. To 
sleep ! ^' 

He must have gone a great way below " double G,^' this 
time, and I did not see how he could get back. He drew 
his scalp quite down to the bridge of his nose, and, seeing 
that my horse pricked up his ears, timorously smiled like 
the idol of Baal. 

" There were men, sir, who did worse. Not simply fail- 
ing to be hearers of the word ! But doers of evil ! Men 
who played cards during the service. Played cards ! Gam- 
bled ! Gambled I And some, — abandoned wretches I — 
who mocked me ! Lifted up their voices and mocked I 
Mockers, gamblers, slumberers ! ^' 

I never heard anything so awful as the man Dimpdin's 
voice, at the iteration of these three words. They seemed 
to come from the bowels of the earth, and rang through the 
wood like the growl of a lion. He told me that he was en- 
gaged upon a Memorial to the Evangelical Union, which 
should state the number of unconverted men in the ranks, 
and the number of castaways. He accredited the loss of 
the campaign to the prevailing wickedness, but was unwill- 
ing to admit that the Southern troops were more religious. 
His theory of reform, if I remember it, embraced the rais- 
ing of Chaplains to the rank of Major, with proportionate 
pay and perquisites, the establishment of a military re- 
ligious bureau, and a Chaplain-General with Aides. Each 
soldier, officer, teamster, and drummer-boy was to have a 
Testament in his knapsack, and services should be held on 
the eve of every battle, and at roll-call in the mornings. 
There was to be an inspection of Testaments as of muskets. 
For swearing, a certain sum should be subtracted from the 
soldier's pay, and conferred upon the Chaplains. 

*' In fact," said Dimpdin, tragically, — scalping himself 



204 CASIPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

meanwhile, — the church must be recognized in every 
depcartment, and if my Memorial be acted upon favorably, 
v/e shall have such victories, in three months, as will sweep 
Kebellion into the grave. Yes ! Into the grave I The 
grave ! '^ 

I was obliged to say, here, that m}^ horse could not stand 
these sepulchral noises, and that my nerves, being shattered 
by the fever, were inadequate to bear tlie shock. So the 
man Dimpdin smiled, like a window-mummy, and contented 
himself with looking like Apollyon. We reached a rill 
directly, and he produced a wicker flask, with a Britannia 
drinking-case. 

" Young men love stimulating drinks, '^ said Dimpdin, — 
strong drinks ! alcholic drinks ! Here is a portion of 
Monongahela ! old Monongahela ! We will refresh our- 
selves ! " 

He found a lemon, accidentally, in his saddle-bag, and 
contrived an informal punch, with wonderful dexterity. 1 
took a draught modestl}'', and he emptied the rest, with an 
" Ah ! ^^ that shook the woods. 

I wondered if the man Dimpdin would suggest the 
apportionment of flasks to soldiers, in his Evangelical 
report ! 

He left me, when we regained the road, to ride with a 
lithe, bronchial person, in white neckcloth and coat cut 
close at the collar. They looked like the fox and the fiend, 
in the fable, and I seemed to hear the man Dimpdin 's voice 
for three succeeding weeks. 

At three o'clock, I climbed a gentle hill, — and I was 
now very weary and weak, — and from the summit, looked 
upon the river James, flowing far off to the right, through 
woods, and bluffs, and grainfields, and reedy islands. At 
last, I had gained the haven. The bright waters below me 
seemed to cool my red, fiery eyes, and a sort of blessed 
blindness fell for a time upon me, so that, when I looked 
again my lashes were wet. The prospect was truly beauti- 



- CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATAKT. 205 

ful. Far to the west, standing, out from the chalky bluffs, 
were scattered the white camps of Wise's Confederate 
brigade. Beyond, on the remote bank of the river, lay 
farm-lands, and stately mansions, and some one showed me, 
rising faintly in the distance, " Drury's Bluff,'' the site of 
Fort Darling, where the gunboats were repulsed in the 
middle of May. Below, in the river, lay the Galena, and a 
little way astern, the Aroostook. Signal-men, v/ith flags, 
were elevated upon the masts of each, and the gunners 
stood upon the decks, as waiting some emergency. The 
vessels had steam up, and seemed to be ready for action at 
any moment. This was Grand Turkey Bend, and the rising 
ground on which I stood, was known as " Malvern Hills.'' 
A farm-house lay to my left, and repairing thither, I cast 
myself from the nag, and lay down in the shady yard, 
thankful that I had reached the haven, and only solicitous 
now to escape the further privations of McClellan's Penin- 
sular Campaign. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE HOSPITAL TRANSPORT. 

An earnest desire now took possession of me, to be the 
first of the correspondents to reach New York. The scenes 
just transpired had been unparalleled in the war, and if, 

through me, the should be the first to make them 

public, it would greatly redound to my credit. Perhaps no 
profession imparts an enthusiasm in any measure kindred to 
that of the American Newsgatherer. I was careless of the 
lost lives and imperilled interests, the suff^i^ug, the defeat ; 
no emotions either of the patriot or the man influenced me. 
I only thought of the eclat of giving the story to the world, 
and nurtured an insane desire to make to Fortress Monroe, 
by some other than the common expedient. That this was 
a paltry ambition I know ; but I write what happened, and 
to the completion of my sketch of a correspondent, this is 
necessary to be said. I found Glumley at the old mansion 
referred to, and stealthily suggested to him the seizing of 
an open boat, whereby we might row down to the Fortress. 
He rejected it as impracticable, but was willing to hazard a 
horseback ride down the Peninsula. I knew that this would 
not do, and after a short time I continued my journey down 
the riverside, hopeful of finding some transport or Despatch 
boat. I was now in Charles City County, and the river 
below me was dotted with woodland islands. I soon got 
upon the main road to Harrison's Point or Bar, and followed 
the stream of ambulances and supply teams for more than 

(206) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COIMBATANT. 207 

an hour. At last we reached a diverging- lane, through 
which we passed to a landing, close to a fine dwelling, 
whose style of architecture I may denominate, the " Gothic 
run mad." An old cider-press was falling into rottenness on 
the lawn ; four soldiers were guarding the well, that the 
mob might not exhaust its precious contents, and between 
some negro-huts and the brink of the bluff, stood a cluster 
of broad-armed trees, beneath whose shade the ambulance- 
drivers were depositing the wounded. 

I have made these chapters sufficiently hideous, without 
venturing to transcribe these new horrors. Suffice it to 
say that the men whom I now beheld had been freshly 
brought from the fight of New Market, and were sufiering 
the first agonies of their wounds. One hour before, they 
had felt all the lustiness of life and adventure. Now, they 
were whining like babes, and some had expired in the am- 
bulances. The act of lifting them to the ground so irritated 
their wounds that they howled dismally, and yet were so 
exhausted that after lying upon the ground awhile, they 
quietly passed into sleep. Such are the hardening results 
of war, that some soldiers, who w;ere unhurt, actually re- 
fused to give a trifle of river water from their canteens to 
their expiring comrades. At one time a brutal wrangle oc- 
curred at the well, and the guard was compelled to seek 
reinforcement, or the thirsty people would have massacred 
them. 

I was now momentarily adding to my notes of the bat- 
tles, and the wounded men very readily gave me their 
names ; for they were anxious that the account of their 
misfortunes should reach their families, and I think also, 
that some martial vanity lingered, even among those who 
were shortly to crumble away. A longboat came in from 
the Galena, after a time, and General McClellan, who had 
ridden down to the pier, was taken aboard. He looked to 
be very hot and anxious, and while he remained aboard the 
vessel, his staff dispersed themselves around the banks and 



208 CAMPAIGNS OF A KOX-COMBATANT. 

talked over the issues of the contest. As the General re- 
ceded from the strand, every sweep of the long oars was 
responded to from the hoarse cannon of the battle-field, and 
when he climbed upon deck, the steamer moved slowly up 
the narrow channel, and the signal-man in the foretop flour- 
ished his crossed flag sturdily. Directly, the Galena opened 
fire from her immense pieces of ordnance, and the roar was 
so great that the explosions of field-guns were fairly 
drowned. She fired altogether by the direction of the sig- 
nals, as nothing could be seen of the battle-field from her 
decks. I ascertained afterward that she played havoc 
with our own columns as well as the enemy's, but she 
brought hope to the one, and terror to the other. The very 
name of gunboat affrighted the Confederates, and they were 
assured, in this case, that the retreating invaders had at 
length reached a haven. The Galena kept up a steady fire 
till nightfall, and the Federals, taking courage, drove their 
adversaries toward Richmond, at eve. Meanwhile the 
Commanding General's escort and body-guard had encamped 
around us, and during the night the teams and much of the 
field cannon fell back. I obtained shelter and meals from 
Quartermaster Le Duke of Iowa, whose canvas was pitched 
a mile or more below, and as I tossed through the watches 
I heard the splashing of water in the river beneath, where 
the tired soldiers were washing away the powder of the 
battle. 

In the morning I retraced to head-quarters, and vainly 
endeavored to learn something as to the means of going 
down the river. Commanders are always anxious to grant 
correspondents passes after a victory ; but they wish to 
defer the unwelcome publication of a defeat. I was advised 
by Quartermaster-General Van Vliet, however, to proceed 
to Harrison's Bar, and, as I passed thither, the last day's 
encounters — those of " Malvern Hills " — occurred. The 
scenes along the way were reiterations of terrors already 
described, — creaking ambulances, staggering foot soldiers, 



CAIMPAIGjS'S of a N0N-C03IBATANT. 209 

profane wagoners, skulking ojBScers and privates, officious 
Provost guards, defdes, pools and steeps packed with teams 
and cannon, wayside houses beset with beg"ging, gossiping, 
or malicious soldiers, and wavy fields of wheat and rye 
thrown open to man and beast. I was amused at one point, 
to see some soldiers attack a beehive that they might seize 
the honey. But the insects fastened themselves upon some 
of the marauders, and after indescribable cursing and strug- 
gling, the bright nectar and comb were relinquished by the 
toilers, and the ravishers gorged upon sweetness. 

Harrison^s Bar is simpl}?- along wharf, extending into the 
river, close by the famous mansion, where William Henry 
Harrison, a President of the United States, was born, and 
where, for two centuries, the scions of a fine old Virginia 
family have made their homestead. The house had now 
become a hospital, and the wounded were being conveyed 
to the pier, whence they, were delivered over to some 
Sanitary steamers, for passage to Northern cities. I tied 
my horse to the spokes of a wagon-wheel, and asked a 
soldier to watch him, while I repaired to the quay. A half 
drunken officer was guarding the w^harf with a squad of 
men, and he denied me admittance, at first, but when I had 
said something in adulation of his regiment — a trick com- 
mon to correspondents — he passed me readily. The ocean 
steamer Daniel Webster was about being cast adrift when I 
stepped on board, and Colonel Ingalls, Quartermaster in 
charge, who freely gave me permission to take passage in 
her, advised me not to risk returning to shore. So, reluc- 
tantly, I resigned my pony, endeared to me by a hundred 
adventures, and directly I was floating down the James, 
with the white teams and the tattered groups of men, re- 
ceding from me, and each moment the guns of Malvern 
Hills growing fainter. Away ! praised be a merciful God ! 
away from the accursed din, and terror, and agony, of my 
second campaign, — away forever from the Chickahominy . 

For awhile I sat meditatively in the bow of the boat, full 
18* 



210 CAMPAIGN'S OF A NOX--COMBATANT. 

of strange perplexities and thankfulness. I had escaped 
the bullet, and fever, and captivity, and a great success in 
my profession was about to be accorded to me, but there 
was much work yet to be done. The rough material I had 
for a grand account of the closing of the campaign ; but 
these fragmentary figures and notes must be wrought into 
narrative, and to avail myself of their full significance, I 
must lose no moment of application. I found that I was 
one of four correspondents on board, and we resolved to 
district the boat, each correspondent taking one fourth of 
the names of the sick and wounded. The spacious saloons, 
the clean deck, the stairways, the gangways, the hold, the 
halls, — all were filled with victims. They lay in rows upon 
straw beds, they limped feverishly here and there ; some 
were crazed from sunstroke, or gashes ; and one man that I 
remember counted the rivets in the boilers over the whole 
hundred miles of the journey, while another, — a teamster, 
— whipped and cursed his horses as if he had mistaken the 
motion of the boat for that of his vehicle. 

The Daniel Webster was one of a series of transports 
supplied for the uses of the wounded by a national commit- 
tee of private citizens. Her wood work was shining and 
glossy, her steel shone like mirrors, and she was cool as 
Paradise. Out of the smoke, and turmoil, and suffocation 
of battle these wretched men had emerged, to enjoy the 
blessedness, unappreciated before, of shelter, and free air 
and cleanliness. There was ice in abundance on board, 
and savory lemonade lay glassily around in great buckets. 
Women flitted from group to group with jellies, bonbons, 
cigars, and oranges, and the grateful eyes of the prostrate 
people might have melted one to tears. These women were 
enthusiasts of all ages and degrees, who proffered them- 
selves, at the beginning of the war, as stewardesses and 
nurses. From the fact that some of them were of mascu- 
line natures, or, in the vocabulary of the times, '' strong- 
minded," they were the recipients of many coarse jests. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 211 

and imputations were made upon both their modesty and 
their virtue. But I would that any satirist had watched 
with me the good ofiSces of these Florence Nightingales of 
the West, as they tripped upon merciful errands, like good 
angels, and left paths of sunshine behind them. The sol- 
diers had seen none of their countrywomen for months, and 
they followed these ambassadors with looks half-idolatrous, 
half-downcast, as if consciously unworthy of so tender re- 
gard. 

'' If I could jest die, now,'' said one of the poor fellows 
to me, '' with one prayer for my country, and one for that 
dear young lady ! " 

There was one of these daughters of the good Samaritan 
whose face was so full of coolness, and her robes so airy, 
flowing, and graceful, that it would have been no miracle 
had she transmuted herself to something divine. She was 
very handsome, and her features bore the imprint of that 
high enthusiasm which may have animated the maid of Arc. 
One of the more forward of the correspondents said to her, 
as she bore soothing delicacies to the invalids, that he 
missed the satisfaction of being wounded, at which she 
presented an orange and a cigar to each of us in turn. 
Among the females on board, I remarked one, very large, 
angular, and sanguine, who sat at a small table, dispensing 
luxuries with the manners of a despot and the charity of a 
child. She had a large vessel of boiling coffee, from which 
she drew spicy quantities at intervals ; and when the troops 
thronged around eagerly, she rebuked the more forward, 
and called up some emaciated, bashful fellows, giving them 
the preference. Every soldier who accepted coffee was 
obliged to take a religious tract, and she gave them away 
with a grim satisfaction that was infinitely amusing and in- 
teresting. I ventured to ask this imperative person for a 
bottle of ink, and after some difficulty, — arising out of 
a mistaken notion on her part that I was dangerously 
wounded, — she vaulted over a chair, and disappeared 



212 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-<;OMBATANT. 

into a state-room. When she returned, her arms were 
filled with a perfect wilderness of stationery, and having 
supplied each of us in turn, she addressed herself to me in 
the following sententious manner : — 

''See here! You reporter! (There's ink!) I want to 
be put in the newspapers ! Look at me ! Now-! Right 
straight ! (Pens ? ) Here I am ; thirteen months at work ; 
been everj^where ; done good ; country ; church ; never 
noticed. Never! — Now! I want to be put in newspa- 
pers. '' 

At this point the Imperatress was called off by some sol- 
diers, who presumed to draw coffee without her consent. 
She slapped one of them soundly, and at once overpowered 
him with kindnesses, and tracts ; then she returned and 
gave me a photograph, representing herself with a basket 
of fruit, and a quantit}^ of good books. I took note of her 
name, but unfortunately lost the memorandum, and unless 
she has been honored by some more careful scribe, 1 fear 
that her labors are still unrecognized. 

During much of the trip, I wrote material parts of my 
report, copied portions of my lists, and managed before 
dusk, to get fairly underway with my narrative. From the 
deck of the steamer I beheld at five o'clock, what I had 
long wished to see, — the famous island of Jamestown, cele- 
brated in the early annals of the New World, as the home 
of John Smith, and of Nathaniel Bacon, and as the resort 
of the Indian Princess, Pocahontas. A single fragment of 
a tower, the remnant of the Colonial church, was the 
only ruin that I could see. 

xVt seven o'clock we dropped anchor in Hampton Roads, 
and a boat let down from the davits. Some of my wily 
compeers endeavored to fill all the stern seats, that I might 
not be pulled to shore ; but I swung down by a rope, and 
made havoc with their shins, so that they gained nothing ; 
the surf beat so vehemently against the pier at Old Point, 
that we were compelled to beach the boat, and I ran rapidly 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB ATAKT. 213 

through the ordnance 3^ard to the " Hygeia House/ ^ where 
our agent boarded ; he had gone into the Fortress to pass 
the night, and when I attempted to follow him thither, a 
knot of anxious idlers, who knew that I had just returned 
from the battle-fields, attempted to detain me by sheer force. 
I dashed rapidly up the plank walk, reached the portal, and 
had just vaulted into the area, when the great gates swung 
to, and the tattoo beat ; at the same instant the sergeant 
of guard challenged me : — 

'' Who comes there ? Stand fast I Guard prime ! '' 
A dozen bright musket-barrels were levelled upon me, 
and I heard the click of the cocks as the fingers were laid 
upon the triggers. When I had explained, I was shown 
the Commandant's room, and hastening in that direction, 
encountered Major Larrabee, my old patron of the fifth 
Wisconsin regiment. lie took me to the barracks, where a 
German officer, commanding a battery, lodged^ and the 
latter accommodated me with a camp bedstead. Here I 
related the incidents of the engagements, and before I con- 
cluded, the room was crowded with people. I think that I 
gave a sombre narration, and the hearts of those who heard 
me were cast down. Still, they lingered ; for the bloody 
story possessed a hideous fascination, and I was cross- 
examined so pertinaciousl3^ that my host finally arose, 
protesting that I needed rest, and turned the party out of 
the place. The old fever-dreams returned to me that night, 
and my brain spun round for hours before I could close my 
eyes. 



CHAPTER XX. 

ON FURLOUGn AWHILE. 

Counter winds and tides had so delayed the Adelaide, on 
which I departed for New York with my despatches, that 
it became a doubtful question as to whether we could make 
connection with the early train for New York. The cap- 
tain shook his head distrustfully when he had looked at his 
watch, and told me that he frequently failed to land his 
passengers in time. The bitterness of the doubt so troubled 
me, that I paced the decks, looking- at the approaching 
city, and thinking that all my labor was to be disappointed 
in the end. I could not telegraph my narrative and lists, 
for Government controlled the wires; and moreover, the 
Associated Press regulations forbade any newspaper to 
telegraph exclusive news from any point but Washington. 
I half resolved to hire a special locomotive, but it was 
doubtful that the railway authorities could procure one, at 
so short notice. Unless I overtook the eight o'clock a. m. 
train, I could not get to New York before two o'clock next 
morning, — too late for the press. Besides, how did I know 
that some correspondent had not reached Washington, by 
way of one of the Potomac vessels, and so forestalled me ? 
Here was an opportunity to be the first of all our corre- 
spondents to publish the incidents and results of six days' 
stupendous warfare, — but escaping at the very moment of 
realization. The seconds were hours as we swept past 
Fort Carroll, rounded Fort McHenry, and swung toward 
our moorings, under Fort Federal Hill. 

(2U) 



CA3IPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 215 

" If we make a prompt landing/^ said the Captain, " you 
may barely get the train." 

I stood with my bundles of notes upon the high deck, 
and signalled a cab-driver. He - caught the precious manu- 
script, and bolted for his cab. In another second he was 
dashing like a runav/ay up the pier, over the bridge, through 
Pratt Street, and — out of sight. Slowly the great hulk 
turned awkwardly about ; one turn of her paddles brought 
us close enough to fling a rope, a second drew her very 
near the shore ; the distance was fearful, but I braced myself 
for the leap. 

'' Stand clear 1 " I called to the score of hackmen. 

A little run, a spring, — and I fell upon my feet, rolled 
over upon my face, gathered myself to the arms of all the 
Jehus, and was carried off bodily by a man with a great 
knob on his forehead as big as the end of his whip-handle. 

'' G'lang ! Who-o-o-oh ! Swis-s-s I '' 

I think that I promised that man everything under the 
sun to catch the train. I recollect that the knob on his 
forehead grew black and bulging as he lashed his horse. I 
found myself standing up in the cab, screaming like the 
driver. We were both insane, and the horse must have 
been of the breed of Pegasus, for I could feel the vehicle 
gyrating in the air. Now we turned a lamp-post, and the 
glass splintered somewhere ; a dog howled as we drove over 
his appendage ; a woman with a baby gave a short scream 
and disappeared into the earth ; a policeman gave chase, 
but we laughed him to scorn. 

Huzza ! Here we are ! The train stands puffing at the 
long platform. ''Your bundle, yer honor! AVasn't I the 
boy to make the keers ? " " Didn't I projuce yer honor in 
good time, sur ? '' I only know that I flung a greenback to 
the two, — that I vainly besought the ticket agent to give 
-^ me no change, but consign it to the first engineer who 
failed to make time, — that I wrote on the back of my hat 
for four hours, — that I devoured a chicken and as many 



216 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMi3ATAXT. 

eggs as she had laid in a lifetime, at Havre do Grace, — 
that I leaped upon the platform at Broad and Prime streets, 
Philadelphia, at noon, — that I plunged into a cab, and 
said, significantly — 
'' New York Ferry ! '' 

It chafed me to pass through the promenade street of my 
home-city, without a moment to spare for my family or 
friends. The cab-horse slipped in Chestnut Street, and I 
went over the rest of the route on foot, at a dog-trot pace, 
passing in various quarters for a sportsman, a professional 
runner, and a lunatic. I was greatly aggravated between 
Amboy and Camden, by persons making inquiries for 
brothers, sons, and acquaintances. At last, when I attained 
the steamer, the Captain kindly shut me up in his ofiice, and 
I went on with my narrative till my e^^es were burning and 
my hands failed in their function. Kill von Kull and its 
picturesque shores went by ; we emerged into the beautiful 
bay, and winding among its buoys, harbor lights, and ship- 
ping, came to, at length, at the foot of Christopher Street. 
I repaired to the office at once, and wrote far into ^l^e night, 
refraining, finally, from sheer blindness and exhaustion, and 
dropped asleep in the carriage as I was taken toward the 
Metropolitan Hotel. 

The next day was Friday, July 4, the anniversary of 
American Independence, and my version of the six-days^ 
battles caused universal gloom and grief. I had furnished 
five pages or forty columns of closely printed matter, and 
thousands of tremulous fingers were tracing out the names of 
their dead dear ones, while I sipped my wine and rehearsed 
for the hundredth time, the incidents of the retreat to a 
multitude of men. Cards and letters came to me by the 
gross, from bereaved countrymen, and I was obliged; final- 
ly, to add a postscript to my account, and a protest that I 
knew no more, and could answer no interrogatories. A bath, 
fresh clothing, and rich food so far improved my appearance 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KOX-COMBATANT. 217 

in a few days, that I presented no other traces of sickness 
and travel than a sunburnt face, and a rheumatic walk. 

With restoration came a revival of old desires, appetites, 
and attachments. It required one additional campaign to 
sober me in these respects, and I was not a little relieved, 
to receive an order on the fourth day, to proceed to Wash- 
ington, and attach myself to the " Army of Virginia '' at the 
head of which Major-General John Pope had just been 
placed. After two quieter days' enjoyment, in the Quaker 
City, I reported myself at the Capital, but was debarred 
from taking the field at once, owing to the tardiness of the 
new Commander. For two weeks or more, I loitered around 
Washington, and although the time passed monotonously, 
I saw many persons and events which have much to do 
with the history of the Eebellion. The story of " Wash- 
ington During the War ^' has yet to be written in all its 
vividness of enterprise, devotion, and infamy. It has been, 
in periods of peace, a dull, dolorous town, of mammoth 
hotels, paltry dwellings, empty lots, prodigiously wide 
avenues, a fossil population, and a series of gigantic public 
buildings, which seemed dropped by accident into a fifth- 
rate backwoods settlement. During the sessions Washing- 
ton was overrun with " Smartness^' : Smart pages, smart 
messengers, smart cabmen, smart publicans, smai-t politi- 
cians, smart women, smart scoundrels ! Greatness became 
commonplace here, and Mr. Douglas might drink at Wil- 
lard's Bar, with none so poor to do him reverence, or Gen- 
eral Winfield Scott strut like a colossus along "the Ave- 
nue,'' and the sleepy negroes upon their hacks would give 
him the attention of only one eye. It was interesting, to 
notice how rapidly provincial eminence lost caste here. 
Slipkins, who was ''Honorable" at home, and of whom his 
county newspaper said that "this distingui#ied fellow citi- 
zen of ours will be heard from, among the greatest of the 
free," — Slipkins moved to and fro unnoticed, and voted 
19 



218 CAMPAIGIS'S OP A X0X-C031BATA>;T. 

with bis party, and drank much brandy and water, and left 
no other record at the Capital than some unpaid bills, and 
perhaps an unacknowledged heir. A gaping rustic and 
his new bride, or a strolling foreigner, marvelling and 
making notes at every turn, might be observed in the 
Patent Office examining General Washington's breeches, 
but these were at once called " greenies,'' and people put 
out their tongues and winked at them. The Secretaries' 
ladies gave parties now and then, attended by the folks 
who sold them horses, or carpets, or wines ; the President 
gave a '' levee," whereat a wonderfully Democratic horde 
gathered to pinch his hands and ogle his lady ; the Marine 
band (in red coats), played twice a week in the Capital 
grounds, and Senators, Cyprians, Ethiops, and children 
rallied to enjoy ; a theatre or two played time-honored 
dramas with Thespian companies ; a couple of scholars 
lectured in the sombre Smithsonian Institution ; an intrigue 
and a duel filled some most doleful hiatus ; and a clerk 
absconded with half a million, or an Indian agent robbed 
the red men and fell back to the protection of his " party." 
A very dismal, a very dirty, and a very Democratic settle- 
ment was the American Capital, till the war came. 

Even the war lost half its interest in Washington. A 
regiment marching down Broadway was something to see, 
but the same regiment in Pennsylvania Avenue looked 
mean and matter-of-fact. A General in the field, or riding 
uncovered through Boston or Baltimore, or even lounging 
at the bar of the Continental or the Astor House or the 
Tremont, was invested with an atmosphere half heroic, half 
poetic ; but Generals in Washington may be counted by 
pairs, and I used to sit at dinner with eight or a dozen of 
them in my eye. There was the new Commander-in-Chief, 
Ilalleck, a sh^t, countryfied person, whose blue coat was 
either threadbare or dusty, or lacked some buttons, and who 
picked his teeth walking up and down the halls at Willard's, 
and argued through a white, bilious eye and a huge mouth. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A KOX~COMBATA^•T. 219 

There was General Mitchel, also, who has since passed 
away, — a little, knotty gentleman, with stiff, gray, Jack- 
sonian hair. And General Sturgis passed in and out 
perpetually, with impressive, individual Banks, or some less 
prominent person, all of them wearing the gold star upon 
their shoulders, and absolute masters of some thousands of 
souls. The town, in fact, v/as overrun with troops. 
Slovenly guards were planted on horseback at crossings, 
and now and then they dashed, as out of a profound sleep, 
to chase some galloping cavalier. Gin and Jews swarmed 
along the Avenue, and I have seen gangs of soldiers of 
rival regiments, but oftener of rival nationalities, pummelling 
each other in the highways, until they were marched off by 
the Provosts. The number of houses of ill-fame was very 
great, and I have been told that Generals and Lieutenants 
of the same organization often encountered and recognized 
each other in therii. Contractors and ^'jobbers '^ used to 
besiege the offices of the Secretaries of War and Navy, and 
the venerable Welles (who remindetf me of Abraham in the 
lithographs), and the barnacled Stanton, seldom appeared in 
public. Simple-minded, straightforward A. Lincoln, and his 
ambitious, clever lady, were often seen of afternoons in their 
barouche ; the little old-fashioned Vice-President walked 
unconcernedly up and down ; and when some of the Kich- 
mond captives came home to the Capital, immense meetings 
were held, where patriotism bawled itself hoarse. A dining 
hour at Wiilard's was often wondrously adapted for a his- 
toric picture, when accoutred officers, and their beautiful 
wives, — or otherwise, — sat at the table d'-Jwte, and sump- 
tuous dishes flitted here and there, while corks popped like 
so many Chinese crackers, and champagne bubbled up like 
blood. At night, the Provost Guard enacted the farce of 
coming by deputations to each public bar, which was at 
once closed, but reopened five minutes afterward. Con- 
gress water was in great demand for weak heads of morn- 
ings, and many a 3^oung lad, girt up for war, wasted his 



220 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

strength in dissipation here, so tliat he was worthless afield, 
and perhaps died in the hospital. The curse of civil war 
was apparent everywhere. One had but to turn his eye 
from the bare Heights of Arlington, where the soldiers of 
the Republic lay demoralized, to the fattening vultures who 
smoked and swore at the National, to see the true cause of 
the North's shortcomings, — its inherent and almost univer- 
sal corruption. Human nature was here so depraved, that 
man lost faith in his kind. Death lurked behind ambuscades 
and fortifications over the river, but Sin, its mother, 
coquetted here, and as an American, I often went to bed, 
loathing the Capital, as but little better than Sodom, though 
its danger had called forth thousands of great hearts to 
throb out, in its defence. For every stone in the Capitol 
building, a man has laid down his life. For every ripple on 
the Potomac, some equivalent of blood has been shed. 

I lodged for some time in Tenth Street, and took my meals 
at Willard's. The legitimate expenses of living in this 
manner were fourteen dollars a week ; but one could board 
at Kirkwood's or Brown's for seven or eight dollars, very 
handsomely. A favorite place of excursion, near the city, 
was '^ Crystal Spring," where some afternoon orgies were 
enacted, which should have made the sun go into eclipse. 
I repaired once to Mount Vernon, and looked dolorously 
at the tomb of the Pater Patris, and once to Annapolis, on 
the Chesapeake, which the war has elevated into a fine naval 
station. 

At length Pope's forces were being massed along the line 
of the Rappahannock, below the Occoquan river, and upon 
the "Piedmont" highlands. ''Piedmont'^ is the name 
applied to the fine table-lands of Northern Virginia, and the 
ensuing campaign has received the designation of the 
" Piedmont Campaign." Pope's army proper was composed 
of three corps, commanded respectively by Generals Irvin 
McDowell, Franz Siegel, and Nathaniel P. Banks. But a 
portion of General McClellan's peninsular army had mean- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COI\IBATANT. 221 

time returned to the Potomac, and the corps of General 
Bnrnside was stationed at Fredericksburg, thirty miles or 
more below Pope's head-quarters at Warrenton. 

I presented myself to General Pope on the 12th of July, 
at noon. His Washington quarters consisted of a quiet 
brick house, convenient to the War office, and the only 
tokens of its importance were some guards at the threshold, 
and a number of officers' horses, saddled in the shade of 
some trees at the curb. The lower floor of the dwelling 
was appropriated to quartermasters' and inspectors' clerks, 
before whom a number of people were constantly present- 
ing themselves, with applications for passes ; — sutlers, in 
great quantities, idlers, relic-hunters, and adventurers in 
still greater ratio, and, last of all, citizens of Virginia, 
solicitous to return to their farms and families. The mass 
of these were rebuffed, as Pope had inaugurated his cam- 
paign with a show of severity, even threatening to drive all 
the non-combatants out of his lines, unless they took the 
Federal oath of allegiance. He gave me a pass willingly, 
and chatted pleasantly for a time. In person he was dark, 
martial, and handsome, — inclined to obesity, richly garbed 
in civil cloth, and possessing a fiery black eye, with luxuri- 
ant beard and hair. He smoked incessantly, and talked 
imprudently. Had he commenced his career more modestly, 
his final discomfiture would not have been so galling ; but 
his vanity was apparent to the most shallow observer, and 
although he was brave, clever, and educated, he inspired 
distrust by his much promising and general love of gossip 
and story-telling. He had all of Mr. Lincoln's garrulity 
(which I suspect to be the cause of their affinity), and 
none of that good old man's unassuming common sense. 

The next morning, at seven o'clock, I embarked for Alex- 
andria, and passed the better half of the forenoon in 
negotiating for a ponjsr At eleven o'clock, I took my seat 
in a bare, filthy car, and was soon whirled due southward, 
ever the line of the Orange and Alexandria railroad. The 
19* 



222 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

country between Alexandria and Warrenton Junction, or, 
indeed, between Washington and Richmond, was not 
unlike those masterly descriptions of Gibbon, detailing the 
regions overrun by Hyder Ali. The towns stood like ruins 
in a vast desert, and one might write musing epitaphs at 
every wind-beaten dwelling, v/hence the wretched denizens 
had fled in cold and poverty to a doubtful hospitality in the 
far South. Fences there were none, nor any living animals 
save the braying hybrids which limped across the naked 
plains to eke out existence upon some secluded patches of 
grass. These had been discharged from the army, and they 
added rather than detracted from' the lonesomeness of the 
wild. Their great mournful eyes and shaggy heads glared 
from copses, and in places where they had lain down 
beside the track to expire. If we sometimes pity these 
dumb beasts as they drag loaded wains, or heavy omni- 
buses, or sub-soil ploughs, we may also bestow a tender 
sentiment upon the army mules. Flogged by teamsters, 
cursed by quartermasters, ridiculed by roaring regiments 
of soldiers, strained and spavined by fearful draughts, 
stalled in bogs and fainting upon hillsides, — their bones 
will evidence the sites of armies, when the skeletons of men 
have crumbled and become reabsorbed. I have seen them 
die like martyrs, when the inquisitor, with his bloody lash, 
stood over them in the closing pangs, and their last tremu- 
lous howl has almost moved to tears. Some of the dwell- 
ings seemed to be occupied, but the tidiness of old times 
was gone. The women seemed sunburnt and hardened by 
toil. They looked from their thresholds upon the flying 
train, with their hair unbraided and their garters ungyved, 
— not a negro left to till the fields, nor a son or brother 
who had not travelled to the wars. They must be now 
hewers of wood, and drawers of water, and the fingers 
whereon diamonds used to sparkle, Hiiist clench the axe and 
the hoe. 

At last we came to Bull Run, the dark and bloody ground 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 223 

where the first grand armies fought and fled, and again to 
be consecrated by a baptism of fire. The railway crossed 
the gorge upon a tall trestle bridge, and for some distance 
the track followed the windings of the stream. A black, 
deep, turgid current, flowing between gaunt hills, lined v/ith 
cedar and beech, crossed here and there by a ford, and van- 
ishing, aboye and below, in the windings of wood and rock ; 
while directly beyond, lie the wide plains of Manassas 
Junction, stretching in the far horizon, to the undulating 
boundary of the Blue Ridge. As the Junction remains "to- 
day, the reader must imagine this splendid prospect, un- 
broken by fences, dwellings, or fields, as if intended prime- 
vally to be a place for the shock of columns, with redoubts 
to the lc;'i: and right, and fragments of stockades, dry rifle 
pits, unfinished or fallen breastworks, and, close in the fore- 
ground, a medley of log huts for the winter quartering of 
troops. ^The woods to the north mark the course of Bull 
Run ; a line of telegraph poles going westward points to 
Manassas Gap ; while the Junction proper is simply a point 
where two single track railways unite, and a few frame 
"shanties '^ or sheds stand contiguous. These are, for ex- 
ample, the ''New York Head-quarters, '^ kept by a person 
with a hooked nose, who trades in cakes, lemonade, and 
(probably) whiskey, of the brand called "rotgut ;'' or the 
*' Union Stores,'^ where a person in semi-military dress 
deals in India-rubber overcoats, underclothing, and boots. 
As the train halts, lads and negroes propose to sell sand- 
v/iches to passengersj and soldiers ride up to take mail-bags 
and bundles for imperceptible camps. In the distance some 
teams are seen, and a solitary horseman, visiting vestiges 
of the battle ; sidelings beside the track are packed with 
freight cars, and a small mountain of pork barrels towers 
near by ; there are blackened remains of locomotives a little 
way oft", but these have perhaps hauled regiments of Con- 
federates to the Junction ; and over all — men, idlers, ruins, 
railway, huts, entrenchments — floats the star-spangled 
banner from the roof of a plank depot. 



224 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

The people in the train were rollicking and well-disposed, 
and black bottles circulated freely. I was invited to drink 
by many persons, but the beverage proffered was intoler- 
ably bad, and several convivials became stupidly drunk. A 
woman in search of her husband was one of the passengers, 
and those contiguous to her were as gentlemanly as they 
knew how to be. ''A pretty woman, in war-time,'' said 
a Captain, aside, to me, "is not to be sneezed at." At 
•' Catlett's," a station near Warrenton Junction, we nar- 
rowly escaped a collision with a train behind, and the occu- 
pants of our train, women included, leaped down an embank- 
ment with marvellous agility. Here we switched off to the 
right, and at four o'clock dismounted at the pleasant vil- 
la ere of Warrenton. 



CHAPTER XXT. 

CAMPAIGNING WITH GENERAL POPE. 

The court-house village of Fauquier County contained a 
population of twelve or fifteen hundred at the commence- 
ment of the war. Its people embraced the revolutionary 
cause at the outstart, and furnished some companies of foot 
to the Confederate service, as well as a mounted company 
known as the " Black Horse Cavalry/' The guns of Bull 
Run were heard here on the day of battle, and hundreds of 
the wounded came into town at nightfall. Thenceforward 
Warrenton became prominently identified with the struggle, 
and the churches and public buildings were transmuted to 
hospitals. After the Confederates retired from Manassas 
Junction, the vicinity of Warrenton was a sort of neutral 
ground. At one time the Southern cavalry would ride 
through the main street, and next day a body of mounted 
Federals would pounce upon the town, the inhabitants, 
meanwhile, being apprehensive of a sabre combat in the 
heart of the place. Some people were ruined by the war ; 
some made fortunes. The Mayor of the village was named 
Bragg, and he was a trader in horses, as well as a wagon- 
builder. There were two taverns, denominated respec- 
tively, the "Warrenton Inn,'' atid the ''Warren Green 
Hotel." I obtained a room at the former. A young man 
named Dashiell kept it. He was a fair-complexioned, 
clever, high-strung Virginian, and managed to obtain a 
great deal of paper money from both republics. It is au 

(225) 



22 G^ CAMPAIGNS OF A XON-COMBATANT. 

encomium in America, to say that a man ''Can keep a 
hotel," but what shall be said of the m.an who can keep a 
hotel in war-time ? I observed young Dashieli's movements 
from day to day, and I am satisfied that his popularity arose 
IVom his fairness and frankness. lie charged nine dollars 
a vs^eek for room, and "board," of three meals, but could, 
with dijESculty, obtain meat and vegetables for the table. 
His mother and his brother-in-law lived in the house. The 
latter was a son of Mayor Bragg, and had been twice in 
the Confederate service. He was engaged both at Bull 
Run and at Fairfax Court House, and made no secret of his 
activity at either place. But he was treated considerately, 
though he vaunted intolerably. The " Inn " was a frame 
dwelling, with a first floor of stone, surrounded by a double 
portico. The first room (entering from the street) was the 
office, consisting of a bare floor, some creaking benches, 
some chairs with whittled and broken arms, a high desk, 
where accounts were kept, a row of bells, numbered, com- 
municating with the rooms. Hand-bills were pinned to the 
walls, announcing that William Iliggins was paying good 
prices for "likely" field hands, that Timothy Ingersol^s 
stock of dry goods was the finest in Piedmont, that James 
Mason's mulatto v/oman, named Rachel, had decamped on 
the night of Whitsuntide, and that one hundred dollars 
would be paid by the subscriber for her return. Most of 
these bills were out of date, but some recent ones were ex- 
hibited to me calling for volunteers, labelled, "Ho I for 
winter-quarters in Washington ; " " Sons of the South 
arise ! " — " Liberty, glory, and no Yankeedom ! " A beil- 
cord hung against the " office " door, communicating with 
the stables, where a deaf hostler might not be rung up. In 
the back yard, suspended from a beam, and upright, hung" a 
large bell, which called the boarders to meals. It com- 
monly rung thrice, and I was told on inquiry, by the cook — 
"Be fust bell, sah, is to prepah to prepah for de table ; 
dat bell, when de fust cook don't miss it, is rung one hour 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 227 

befo' mealtime. Be second bell, sah, is to prepah for de 
table ; do last bell, to come to de table. '^ 

I should have been better pleased with the ceremony, if 
the food had been^more cleanly, more wholesome, and more 
abundant. We used to clear the plates in a twinkling, and 
if a person asked twice for beef, or butter, he was stared at 
b}^ the negroes, as if he had eaten an entire cow. I soon 
brought the head-waiter to terms by promising him a dollar 
a week for extra attendance, and could even get ice after a 
time, which was a luxury. There was a bar upon the 
premises, which opened stealthily, Vv^hen there were liquors 
to be sold. Cider (called champaigne) could bo purchased 
for three dollars a bottle, and whiskey came to hand occa- 
sionally. There were cigars in abundance, and I used to 
sit on the upper porch of evenings, pufSng long after mid- 
night, and watching the sentinels below. 

There was some female society in Warrenton, but the 
blue-coats engrossed it all. The young women were ardent 
partisans, but also very pretty ; and treason, somehow, 
heightened their beauty. _ Disloyalty is always pardonable 
in a woman, and these ladies appreciated the fact. They 
refused to walk under Federal flags, and stopped their ears 
when the bands played national music ; but every evening 
thQy walked through the main street, arm in arm with dash- 
ing Lieutenants and Captains. Many fl.irtations ensued, 
and a great deal of gossip was elicited. In the end, some 
of the misses fell out among themselves, and hated each 
other more than the common enemy. I overheard a 5^oung 
bidy talking in a low tone one evening-, to a Captain in the 
Ninth New York regiment. 

''If you knew my brother,'^ she said, "I am sure you 
v/ould not fire upon Mm.^' 

As there were plain, square, prim porches to all the 
dwellings, the ladies commonly took positions therein of 
evenings, and a grand promenade commenced of all the 
young Federals in the town. The streets were pleasantly 



228 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

* 

shaded, and a leafy coolness pervaded the days, though 
sometimes, of afternoons, the still heat was almost stifling. 
A jaunt after supper often took me far into the country, and 
the starlights were softer than one's peaceful thoughts. To 
be a civilian was a distinguished honor now, and I enjoyed 
the staring of the citizens, who pondered as to my purposes 
and pursuits, as only villagers can do. There is a quiet 
pleasure in being a strange person in a country town, and 
so far from objecting to the inquisitiveness of the folk, I 
rather like it. One may be passing for a young duke, or 
tourist, or clergyman, or what not ? 

The Ninth New York (militia) regiment guarded Warren- 
ton, and it was composed of clever, polit-e young fellows, 
who had taken to volunteering before there was any 
promise of war, and who turned out, pluckily, when the 
strife began. Perhaps public sentiment or pride of organi- 
zation influenced them. They were all good-looking and 
tidy, and their dress-parades, held in the main street, were 
handsome affairs. I have never seen better disciplined 
columns, and the youthful faces of the soldiers, with the 
staid locality of the exhibition, — young women, negroes, 
dogs and babies, and old men looking on, — seemed to con- 
tradict the blood}^ mission of the troops. The old men, 
referred to, were villagers of such long standing that had 
the Court of Saint James, or the Vatican, or the battle of 
Waterloo been moved into their country, they would have 
still been villagers to the last. They met beside the Warren- 
ton Inn, under the sliade of the trees, at eleven o'clock 
every morning, and borrowed the New York papers of the 
latest date. One individual, slightly bald, would read 
aloud, and the rest crouched or stood about him, making: 
grunts and remarks at intervals. They did not wish to 
believe the Federal reports, but they must needs read, and 
as most of them had sons in the other army, their pulses 
were constantly tremulous with anxiety. I think that 
Pope's resolve to transport these harmless old people beyond 
his lines was very barbarous, and the soldiers denounced it 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB AT^^^T. 229 

in similar terms. They spoke of Pope, as of some terrible 
despot, and wished to know when he was coming to town, 
as they had appointed a committee, and drafted a petition, 
asking his forbearance and charity. When these villagers 
found me out to be a Newspaper Correspondent, they 
regarded me with amusing interest, and marvelled what I 
would say of their town. A villager is v,ery sensitive as to 

his place of residence, and these good people read the 

daily, confounding me with all the paper, — editorial, cor- 
respondence, and, I verily believe, advertisements. One of 
them wished me to board at his residence, and I was, after 
a time, invited out to dinner and tea frequently. 

The negroes remained in Warrenton, in great numbers, 
and held carnival of evenings when the bands played. 
" Contrabands '^ were coming daily into town, and idleness 
and vice soon characterized the mass of them. They were 
ignorant, degraded, animal beings, and many of them loved 
rum ; it was the last link that bound them to human kind. 
Servants could be hired for four dollars a month and 
" keep ; " but they were " shiftless '^ and unprofitable. The 
Provost-Marshal of the place was a Captain Ilendrickson. 
His quarters were in the Court House building, and he kept 
a zealous eye upon sutlers and citizens. The former tres- 
passed in the sales of liquors to soldiers, and the latter 
were accused of maintaining a contraband mail, and of con- 
spiring to commit divers offences. There were a number of 
churches in the village, all of which served as hospitals, 
and in the quiet cemetery west of the town, two hundred slain 
soldiers were interred. A stake of white pine was driven 
at the head of each grave. Here lay some of the men who 
had helped to change the destinies of a continent. No 
public worship was held in the place. The Sundays were 
busy as other days : trains came and went, teams made 
dust in the streets, cavalry passed through the village, 
music arose from all the outlying camps ; parados and in- 
spections were made, and all the preparations for killing 
20 



230 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COIuBATANT. 

men were relentlessly forwarded. A pleasant entertain- 
ment occurred one evening, when a plot of ground adjoin- 
ing the Warrcnton Inn, was appropriated for a camp 
theatre. Candle footlights were arranged, and the stage 
was canopied with national flags. The citizens congre- 
ga,ted, and the performers deferred to their prejudices by 
singing no Federal songs. The negroes climbed the trees 
to listen, and their gratified guffaws made the night quiver. 
The war lost half its bitterness at such times ; but I thought 
with a shudder of Stuart's thundering horsemen, charging 
into the village, and closing the night's mimicry with a hor- 
rible traged}^ 

Some of the dwellings about the place were elegant and 
spacious, but many of these v/ere closed and the owners 
removed. Two newspapers had been published here of old, 
and while ransacking the ofEce of one of them, I discovered 
that the type had been buried under the floor. The planks vv'ere 
speedily torn away, and the cases dragged to light. I ob- 
tained some curious relics, in the shape of " cuts '' of recruit- 
ing offlcers, runaway negroes, etc., as well as a column of a 
leader, in type, describing the first battle of Bull Eun. For 
two weeks I had little to do, as the campaign had not j^et 
fairly commenced, and I passed many hours every day read- 
ing. A young lawyer, in the Confederate service, had left 
an ample library behind him, and the books passed into the 
hands of every invader in the town. 

Pope finally arrived at Warrenton, and as the troops 
seemed to be rapidly concentrating, I judged it expedient to 
procure a horse at once, and canvassed the country with 
that object. By paying a quartermaster the Government 
price ($130), I could select a steed IVom the pound, but in- 
spection satisfied me that a good saddle nag could not be 
obtained in this way. After much parleying with Hebrews 
and chaffing with country people, I heard that Mayor 
Bragg kept some fair animals, and when I stated my pur- 
pose at his house, he commenced the business after a fash- 
ion immemorial at the South, by producing some whiskey. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 231 

When Mayor Bragg had asked me pertinently, if I knew 
much about the " pints of a hoss/^ «ind what " figger in the 
way of price ^^ would suit me, he told an erudite negro 
named '' Jeems^' to trot out the black colt. The black 
colt made his appearance by vaulting over a gate, and play- 
fully shivering a panel offence with his '' off hoof. Then 
he executed a flourish with his ta,il, leaped thrice in the air, 
and bit savagely at the man " Jeems." 

When I asked Mayor Bragg if the black colt was suffi- 
ciently gentle to stand fire, he replied that he was gentle as 
a lamb and offered to put me astride him. I had no sooner 
taken my seat, hov/ever, than the black colt backed, 
neighed, flourished, and stood erect, and finally ran away, 

A second animal was produced, less mettlesome, but also 
black, finely strung-, daintily hoofed, and as Mayor Bragg 
said, '* just turned four yeo.r.'^ The price of this charger 
was one hundred and ninety dollars ; but in consideration 
of my youth and pursuit, Mayor Bragg proposed to take 
one hundred and seventy-five ; we compromised upon a 
hundred and fifty dollars, Major Bragg throwing in a halter, 
and by good luck I procured a saddle the same evening, so 
that I rode triumphantly through the streets of Warren- 
ton, and fancied that all the citizens were admiring my new 
purchase. 

I was struck with the fact, that Mayor Bragg, though an 
ardent patriot, would accept of neither Confederate nor Vir- 
ginia money ; he required payment for his animal, in Father 
Chase's '•' greenbacks. '' 

Mounted anew, I fell into my former active habits, and 
made two journeys, to Sporryville and Little Washington, 
in one direction, to Madison in another ; each place was 
probably twenty miles distant ; the latter was merely a cav- 
alry outpost, where Generals Hatch and Bayard were sta- 
tioned, and the form.er villages were the head-quarters, 
respectively, of General Banks and General Sicgel. 

Madison was, at this time, a precarious place for a long 
tarrying. I went to sleep in the inn on the night of my 



232 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

arrival, and at that time the place was thronged with cav- 
alry and artillery-men. Next morning, when I aroused, not 
a blue-coat could be seen. They had iallen back in the' 
darkness, and prudently abstaining from breakfast, I gal- 
loped northward, as if the whole Confederate army was at 
my heels. These old turnpike roads were now marked by 
daily chases and rencontres. A few Virginians, fleetly 
mounted, would provoke pursuit from a squad of Federals, 
and the latter would be led into ambuscades. A quaint in- 
cident happened in this maimer, near Madison. 

Captain T. was chasing a party of Confederates one after- 
noon, when his company was suddenly fired upon from a 
wheatfield, parties rising up on both sides of the road, and 
discharging carbines through the fence rails. Three or four 
men, and as many horses were slain ; but the ambushing 
body was outnumbered, and several of its members killed. 
Among others, a young lieutenant took deliberate aim at 
Captain T. at the distance of twelve yards ; and, see- 
ing that he had missed, threw up his carbine to surrender. 
The Captain had already drawn his revolver, and, amazed 
at the murderous purpose, he shot the assassin in the 
head, killing him instantly. Nobody blamed Captain 
T., but he was said to be a humane person, and the affair 
preyed so continually upon his mind, that he committed sui- 
cide one night in camp. 

At Sperryville I saw and talked with Franz Siegel, the' 
idol of the German Americans. He had been a lieutenant 
in his native country, but subsided, in St. Louis, to the rank 
of publican, keeping a beer saloon. AVhen the war com- 
menced, he was appointed to a colonelcy, in deference to 
the large German republican population of Missouri. His 
abilities were speedily manifested in a series of engage- 
ments which redeemed the Southern border, and he finally 
fought the terrible battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, which 
broke the spirit of the Confederates west of the Missis- 
sippi. The man who fought " mit Siegel '' in those days, 
was always told in St. Louis : '' Py tarn ! you pays not'ing 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 233 

for your lager.'' Siegel now commanded one of Pope's 
corps. He was a diminutive person, but well-knit, emaci- 
ated by his active career, feverish and sanguine of face, 
and, as it appeared to me, consuming with energy and am- 
bition. As a General he was prompt to decide and do, and 
his manner of dealing with Confederate property was se- 
verer than that of any American. He battered the splendid 
mansion hotel of White Sulphur Springs to the ground, for 
example, when somebody discharged a rifle from its window. 
He preferred to fight by retreating, and if pursued, gener- 
ally unmasked his guns and made massacre with the scat- 
tered opponents. Another German commander was Blen- 
ker, whose corps of Germans might have belonged to the 
free bands of the Black forest. They v/ere the most law- 
less men in the Federal service,* and what they did not 
steal they destroyed. Such volunteers were mercenaries, 
in ever}^ sense of the word. I have been told that they 
slaughtered sheep and cattle in pure wantonness, and the 
rats of Ehrenfels did not make a cleaner sweep of provis- 
ions. The Germans, as a rule, lacked the dash of the Irish 
troops and the tact of the Americans. They thought and 
fought in masses, had little individuality, and were thick- 
skulled ; but they were persevering and had their hearts in 
the cause. 

General Banks was a fine representative of the higher 
order of Yankee. Originally a machinist in a small manu- 
facturing town near Boston, he educated himself, and was 
elected successively Legislator, Governor, Congressman, 
and General of volunteers. His personal graces were 
equalled by his energy, and his ability was considerable. 
He has been very successful in the field, and has conducted 
a retreat unparalleled in the war ; these things being always 
reckoned among ximerican successes. The country here- 
about was mountainous, healthy, and well adapted for cam- 
paigning. Streams and springs were numerous, and there 
were fine sites for camps. The deserted toll-houses along 
20* 



234 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

the way glowered mournfully through the rent windows, 
and I fancied them, sometimes, as I rode at night, haunted 
by the shambling tollman. , 

Ancient road that wind'st deserted, 

Througli the level of the vale, — 
Sweeping toward the crowded market, 

Like a stream without a sail, 

Standing by thee, I look backward, 

And, as in the light of dreams, 
See the years descend and vanish, 

Like thy tented wains and teams. — T. B. Rkad. 

To provide myself with thorough equipment for Pope's 
campaign, I returned to Washington, and purchased a 
patent camp-bed, which strapped to my saddle, saddle bags 
of large capacity. India-rubber blankets, and a full suit of 
waterproof cloth, — hat, coat, genoulUeres, and gauntlets. 
I had my horse newly shod, I drew upon my establishment 
for an ample sum of money, and, to properly inaugurate the 
campaign, I gave an entertainment in the parlor of the 
inn. 

Pipes, cold ham, a keg of beer, and a demijohn of whis- 
key comprised the attractions of the night. The guests 
were three Captains, two Adjutants, two Majors, a Colonel, 
four Correspondents, several Lieutenants, and a signal oS- 
cer. There was some jesting, and much laughing, consider- 
able story-telling, and (toward the small hours) a great deal 
of singing. Much heroism was evolved ; all the guests 
Vv^ere devoted to death and their country ; and there was 
one person who took off his coat to fight an imaginary 
something, but changed- his mind, and dropped asleep di- 
rectly. At length, a gallant Captain, to demonstrate his 
warlike propensities, fired a pistol through the front win- 
dow ; and somebody blowing out the candles, the whole 
party retired to rest upon the floor. In this delightful way 
my third campaign commenced, and next evening I set oif 
for the advance. 



CHAPTER XXn. 



ARMY MORALS. 



Some of General McDowell's aides had invited me to pass 
a night with them at Warrenton Springs. Fully equipped, 
I joined Captain Ball, of Cincinnati, and we rode southward, 
over a hard, picturesque turnpike, under a clear moonlight. 
The distance was seven miles, and a part of this route was 
enlivened by the fires, halloos, and the music of camps. 
Volunteers are fond of serenading their officers ; and this 
particular evening was the occasion of much merry-making-, 
since a majority of the brass bands were to be mustered out 
of the service to-morrow. We could hear the roll of drums 
from imperceptible localities, and the sharp winding of 
bugles broke upon the silence like the trumpet of the Arch- 
angel. Stalwart shapes of horsemen galloped past us, and 
their hoofs made monotone behind, till the cadence died so 
gradually away that we did not know when the sound 
ceased and when the silence began. The streams had a 
talk to themselves, as they strolled away into the meadow, 
and an owl or two challenged us, calling up a corporal 
hawk. This latter fellow bantered and blustered, and 
finally we fell into an ambush of wild pigs, which charged 
across the road and plunged into the* woods. There were 
despatch stations at intervals, where horses stood saddled, 
and the couriers waited for hoof-beats, to be ready to ride 
fieetly toward head-quarters. Anon, we saw wizard lights, 
as of Arctic skies, where remote camps built conflagration ; 

(235) 



23 G CAMPAIGNS OF A XON-COMBATANT. 

and trudging wearily down the stony road, poor ragged, 
flying negroes, with their families and their worldly all, 
came and went — God help them ! — and touched their hats 
so obsequiously that my heart was wrung, and I felt a 
nervous impulse to put them upon my steed and take their 
burdens upon my back. Little sable folk, asleep and ahun- 
gered, drawn to that barefoot woman's breast ; and the 
tired boy, weeping as he held to his father's hand ; and the 
father with the sweat of fatigue and doubt upon his fore- 
head, — children of Ishmael all ; war raging in the land, but 
God overhead ! These are the ''wandering Jews" of our 
day, hated North and South, because they are poor and 
blind, and do no harm ; but out of their wrongs has arisen 
the abasement of their wrongers. Is there nothing over 
all? 

We entered the beautiful lawn of the Springs' hotel, at 
ten o'clock, and a negro came up to take our horses. By 
the lamplight and moonlight I saw McDowell's tent, a 
sentry pacing up and down before it, and the thick, power- 
ful figure of the General seated at a writing-table within. 
Irvin McDowell was one of the oldest officers in the service, 
and when the war commenced he became a leading com- 
mander in the Eastern army. At Bull Run he had a 
responsible place, and the ill success of that battle brought 
him into unpleasant notoriety. Though he retained a lead- 
ing position he was still mistrusted and disliked. None 
bore ingratitude so stolidly. He may have flinched, but he 
never replied ; and though ambitious, he tried to content 
himself with subordinate commands. Some called him a 
traitor, others an incompetent, others a plotter. If McClel- 
lan failed, McDowell was cursed. If Pope blundered, 
McDowell received half the contumely. But he loosened 
no cord of discipline to make good will. Implacable, duti- 
ful, soldierly, rigorous in discipline, sententious, brave, — 
the most unpopular man in America went on his way, and 
I think that he is recovering public favor again. The Gen- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-C03IBATANT. 237 

eral of a republic has a thorny path to tread, and almost 
every public man has been at one time disgraced during the 
civil war. McDowell, I think, has been treated w^orse than 
any other. 

Our nags being removed, we repaired to one of the rustic 
cottages which bounded the lawn, and I was introduced to 
several members of the staff; among others, to a Count 
Saint Alb, an Austrian. He had been an officer in his 
native country ; but came to America, anxious for active 
service, and was appointed to Gen. McDowell's Staff with 
the rank of Captain. I understood that he was writing a 
book upon America. There are many such adventurers in 
the Federal service, but the present one was clever and 
amusing, and he spoke English fluently. 

Our tea was plain but abundant, consisting of broiled 
beef, fresh bread, butter, and cheese ; and the inveterate 
whiskey was produced afterward, when we assembled on 
the piazza, so that the hours passed by pleasantly, if not 
profitably, and we retired at two o'clock. 

In the morning I bathed in the clear, cold sulphur spring, 
where thousands of invalid people had come for healing 
waters. A canopy covered the spring, and a soldier stood 
on guard at the top of the descending steps, to preserve the 
property in its original cleanliness. This was one of the 
most famous medical springs on the American continent; 
the water was so densely impregnated that its peculiarly 
offensive smell could be detected at the distance of a mile. 
The place was going to ruin now. All the bathing-rooms 
w^ere falling apart, the pipes had been carried off to be 
moulded into bullets, and the great hotel was desolate. I 
walked into the ball-room ; but the large gilded mirrors had 
been splintered, and lewd writings defaced the wall. Some 
idlers were asleep upon the piazzas, and the furniture was 
removed or broken. Some rustic cottages dotted the lawn, 
but these were now inhabited by officers and their servants. 
A few days were to finish the work of rapine, and a heap 



238 CAMPAIGN'S OF A IsON-C031BATATsT. 

of ashes was to mark the scene of tournament, coquetry, 
and betrothal. I witnessed a review of troops in a field 
contiguous, at nine o'clock. The heat was so intense that 
many men fell out of line and were carried off to their 
camps. McDowell passed exacting'ly from man to man, 
examined muskets, clothing, and knapsacks, and the inspec- 
tion was proceeding, when I bade my friends good by and 
set out for Culpepper. 

C I crossed the North Rappahannock, or Hedgemain river, 
upon a precarious bridge of planks. A new bridge for 
artillery was being constructed close by ; for the river 
beneath had a swift, deep current, and could with difficulty 
be forded. Patches of wagons, squads of horse, and now 
and then a regiment of infantry, varied the monotony of the 
journey. The country was high, woody, and sparsely 
settled. At noon I overtook Tower's brigade, and observ- 
ing the 94th N. Y. Regiment resting in the woods, I dis- 
mounted and made the acquaintance of its Colonel. He was 
at this juncture greatly enraged with some of his soldiers 
who had been plucking green apples. 

" Boy,'^ he said to one, " put down that fruit I Drop it, 
or I'll blow your head off! Directly you'll double up, 
pucker, and say that you have the " di-o-ree,^^ and require 
an ambulance. Orderly ! " 

A sergeant came up and touched his cap. 

" Take your musket," said the Colonel ; "go out to that 
orchard, and order those men away. If they hesitate or 
object, shoot them 1 " 

A few such colonels would marvellously improve the 
volunteer organization. > 

The Hazel or North Anne river, a branch of the Hedge- 
main, interposed a few miles further on, and passing through 
a covered bridge, I turned down the north bank, crossed 
some spongy fields, and at length came to a dry place in 
the edge of a woods, where I tied my nag, spread out my 
bed, and prepared to dine. A box of sardines, a lemon, and 



CAMPAIGNS OF A XON-COMBATAXT. 239 

some fresh sandwiches constituted the repast, and being- 
dusty and parched I stripped afterward and swam across 
the river. Seeing that my horse plunged and neighed, with 
swollen eyeballs, and every evidence of terror, I hastened 
toward him and discovered a black snake, six feet or more 
in length, which seemed about to coil itself around the nag's 
leg. The size and contiguity of the reptile at first appalled 
me, and my mind was not more composed when the serpent, 
at my approach, manifested an inclination to assume the 
offensive. Its fold^ were thicker than m.y arm, and it com- 
menced to revolve rapidly, at length running up a sapling, 
suspending itself by the tail, and hissing vehemently. It 
belonged to the family of "racers,'' and was hideous and 
powerful beyond any specimen that I had seen. I blew it 
into halves at the second discharge of my pistol, and at 
once resumed my saddle, indisposed to remain longer amidst 
such acquaintances. 

At four o'clock I saw Culpepper, a trim little village, 
lying in the hollow of several hills. A couple of steeples 
added to its picturesqueness, and a swift creek, crossed by 
a small bridge, interposed between myself and the main part 
of the place. It looked like Sunday when I rode through 
the principal street. The shutters were closed in the shop 
windows, the dwellings seemed tenantless, no citizens were 
abroad, no sutlers had invaded the country ; only a few 
cavalry-men clustered about an ancient pump to water their 
nags, and some military idlers were sitting upon the long 
porch of a public house, called the Virginia Hotel. I tied 
my horse to a tree, the bole of which had been gnawed bare, 
and found the landlord to be an old gentleman named Paine, 
who appeared to be somewhat out of his head. Two days 
before the Confederate cavalry had vacated the village, and 
the army had been encamped about the town for many 
months. A sabre conflict had taken place in the streets: 
and these events, happening in rapid succession, combined 
with the insolence of some Federal outriders, had so agitated 



240 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATANT. 

the host that his memory was quite gone, and he could not 
perform even the slightest function. There is a panacea for 
all these things, which the faculty and philanthropy alike 
forbid, but which my experience in war-matters has invari- 
ably found unfailing. I produced my flask, and gently 
insinuated it to the old gentleman's lips. He possessed 
instinct suflBcient to uncork and apply it, and the results 
were directly apparent, in a partial recovery of memory. 
He said that meals were one dollar each, board four dollars 
a day, or by the week twenty-five dollars. These terms 
are unknown in America ; but when Mr. Paine added that 
horse provender was one dollar per "feed,'' I looked aghast, 
and required some stimulant myself to appreciate the 
enormity of the reckoning. I discovered, however, that the 
people of the village were almost starving ; that beef had 
been fifty cents a pound during the whole winter, flour 
twenty-five dollars per barrel, coffee one dollar and a quar- 
ter a pound, and corn one dollar per bushel. The army had 
swept the country like famine, and the citizens had pinched, 
pining faces, with little to eat to-day and nothing for to- 
morrow. 

I acquiesced in the charge, as no choice remained, and 
asked to be shown to my room. A burly negro, apparently 
suffering delirium tremens, seized my baggage with quaking 
hands, and lifting a pair of red eyes upon me, shuffled 
through a bare hall, up a stairway, and into a bedroom. I 
never saw a more hideous being in my life, and when he had 
flung my luggage upon the floor, he sank into a chair, and 
glared wofully into my face, breathing like one about to ex- 
pire. 

" Young Moss," said he, " cant you give a po' soul a 
drop o' sperits ? Do for de good Lord's sake ! Do, Moss, 
fo' de po' nigga's life. Do I do ! Moss." 

I poured him out a little in a tumbler, less from charity 
than from fear ; for he knew that I was provided with a 
bottle, and I seemed to read murder in his eyes. 



CxiMPAlGNS or A XON-COMBATANT. 241 

He drank like one athirst and scant of breath, making a 
dry, cliackling noise with his throat. When he had fin- 
ished, he leaned his powerful neck and head upon the bed 
and groaned terribly. 

'' Moss,'^ he said again, " ain't yo\x got no tobacco. 
Moss ? I haint had none since Christmas. Ps mos dead 
I'm po' sinful nigga'. Do give some tobacco to po' crea- 
ture, do I " 

I told him that I did not chew the weed, but gave him a 
crushed cigar, and he thrust it into his mouth, as if it was 
food and he was perishing. This wretched animal per- 
formed the duties of a chambermaid upon the premises ; he 
made the beds, attended to the toilets, answered the bells, 
etc. He finally became so ofiensive that I forbade him ray 
room, and he revenged himself by paltry thefts. There 
were two other servants, a woman with a baby, and a 
shrewd, dishonest mulatto man, who was the steward and 
carver. This fellow secreted provender in the kitchen and 
sold it stealthily to hungry soldiers. A public house so 
mismanaged I had nowhere met. Sometimes we could get 
no breakfast till noon, and finally the price of dinner went 
up to one dollar and a half, with nothing to eat. The table 
was protected from flies by a series of paper fans, pendant 
from the ceiling and connected by a cord, which an ebony 
boy pulled, at the foot of the room to keep them in motion. 
This boy being worked day and night, often fell asleep 
upon his stool, when the yellow man boxed his ears, or 
knocked him dov/n ; and then he would fan with such vigor 
that a perfect gale swept down the table. The landlord 
was a kindly old man, but he could not '' keep a liotel," 
and the strong-minded part of the house consisted of his 
wife and four daughters. Gen. Ben Butler would have sent 
these young women to Ship Island, five times of a day. 
They were very bad-mannered and always sat apart at one end 
of the cloth, talking against the " Yankees." As there was 
no direct provocation to do so, this boldness was gratuitous, 
21 



242 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATAXT. 

and detracted rather than added to my estimate of the hero- 
ism of Southern women. I have known them to burst into 
the office, crowded with blue-coats, and scream — 

" Pop, Yankees thieving in garden ! '^ or, " Pop, drive 
tliese Yankees out of parlor ! " 

Every afternoon when the pavement was unusually patron- 
ized by young officers, these women would sally out, prom- 
enade in crinoline, cilk stockings, and saucy hoods, and the 
crowd would fall respectfully back to let them pass. A 
flag hung from a hospital over the sidewalk, and with a 
pert flourish, the landlord's daughters filed off the pave- 
ment, around the ensign, and back again. This was amus- 
ing, I thought, but not very clever, and rather immodest. 
Had they been handsome, some romance might have at- 
tached to the act ; but being homely and not marriageable, 
I smiled at the occurrence and entered it in my diary as 
" patriotism run mad.'' The stable arrangements were, if 
possible, worse. One had to be certain, from actual pres- 
ence, that his horse was fed at all, and during the first three 
days of my tenure, the black hostler lost me a breast strap, 
a halter, a crupper strap, and finally emptied my saddle- 
bags. 

Now and then a woman made her appearance at a front 
window, stealthily peeping into the street, or a neighboring 
farmer ventured into town upon a lean consumptive mule. 
The very dogs were skinny and savage for want of suste- 
nance, and when a long, cadaverous hog emerged from no- 
where one day, and tottered up the main street, he was 
chased, killed, and quartered so rapidly, that the famous 
steam process seemed to have been applied to him, of being 
dropped into a hopper, and tumbling out, a medley of hams, 
ribs, lard, and penknives. The stock of provisions at the 
hotel finally gave out, and I was compelled to purchase 
morsels of meat from the steward. Dreadful visions of fam- 
ishing ensued, but ultimately the railway was opened to 
town, and a sutler started a shop in the village. I lived 



CAMPAIGNS OF A >70N-C0MBATANT. Z4d 

upon sardines and crackers for two days, and a Major Fi- 
field, Superintendent of Military Railroads, gave me savory 
breakfasts of ham afterward. Troops were now concentrat- 
ing in the neighborhood of Culpepper, and a bevy of camps 
encircled the little village. Crawford's Brigade, of Banks's 
Corps, garrisoned the place, and a Provost Marshal occu- 
pied the quaint Court House. Reconnoissances were made 
southward daily, and I joined one of these, which left the 
village on the second of August, at three o'clock, for 
Orange Court House, seventeen miles on the way to Rich- 
mond. Detachments of a Vermont and a New York cav- 
alry regiment composed the reconnoitring party, and the 
whole was commanded by Gen. Crawford, a clever and un- 
ostentatious soldier. We bivouacked that night near Rac- 
coon Ford, on the river Rapidan. No fires were built ; for 
we knew that the enemy was all around us, and we slept 
coldly and imperfectly till the gray of Sunday morning. At 
daylight we galloped into the main street of Orange Court 
House, having first sent a squadron around the village, to 
ride in at the other end. At the very moment of our entry, 
a company or more of Confederate horse was also trotting 
into town. Both parties sounded the charge simultane- 
ously, and the carbines exploded in the very heart of the 
village. For a minute or more a sabre fight ensued, alter- 
nated by the firing of revolvers ; but the defenders were 
overmatched, and several of them having been slain, they 
turned to escape. At that moment, however, our other 
squadron charged upon them, effectually blocking up the 
street, and the whole party surrendered. A major, who ex- 
hibited some obstinacy, was felled from the saddle by a ter- 
rible cut, which clove his skull, and a very dexterous young 
fellow, who attempted to escape by a side street, dodged 
a bevy of pursuers and saved his head by the loss of both 
his ears. The disfigured corpses of those freshly slain were 
laid along the sidewalk in a row ; and after some invasion 
of henroosts and private pantries, we remounted, and v/ith 



244 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03iBATA]ST. 

fifty or more prisoners crossed the Rapidan, and were 
welcomed into Culpepper with cheers. The prisoners were 
lodged in the loft of the Court House, and their officers 
were paroled, and boarded among the neighbors. They 
complied with the terms of their parole very honorably, and 
bore testimony to the courtesy of their captors. I talked 
with them often upon the tavern porch, but an undue inti- 
macy with any of them might have brought me into disre- 
pute. Although the larders of the village were supposed 
to be empty, savory meals were nevertheless sent daily to 
these cavalry-men, and it was evident that the people on all 
hands sympathized with their soldiery. 

The stringent orders of Pope, relative to removing the 
disaffected beyond his lines, were never enforced. I doubt 
if the veritable commander himself meant to do more than 
intimidate evil doers ; but I saw frequent evidences of scru- 
pulous humanity on the part of his general officers. 

One day, when I was negotiating with the Provost for 
the purchase of some port wine, stored upon the premises 
of a village druggist, a sergeant elbowed his way into the 
presence of the Marshal, and pushed forward two very dirty 
lads, who gave their ages respectively, as ten and thirteen 
years. They were of Hibernian parentage, and belonged 
to the class of newsboys trading with the different brigades. 
The younger lad was wiping his nose and eyes with a relic 
of a coat sleeve, and the elder was studying the points of 
the case, with a view to an elaborate defence. The s-er- 
geant produced a thick roll of bills and laid them upon the 
desk. 

" Gineral Crawford," said he, "orders these boys to be 
locked up in the jail. They have been passing this stuff 
upon the country folks, and belong to a gang of young var- 
mints who toilers the 'lay.^ The Gineral is going to have 
'em brought up at the proper time and punished.'' 

The bills were fair imitations of Confederate curreno^^, and 
were openly sold in the streets of Northern cities at the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-C03HBATANT. 245 

rate of thousands of dollars for a penny. These lads prob- 
ably purchased horses, swine, or fowls with them, or per- 
haps paid some impoverished widow for board in the worth- 
less counterfeit. 

The younger lad sobbed and howled when the order for 
his incarceration had been announced, but the elder made a 
stout remonstrance. 

He didn't know the Gineral would arrest him. Everybody 
else passed the bills. He thought they wos good bills ; 
some man gave ^em to him. They wan't passed, nohow, 
upon nobody but Behels ! He could prove that! He 
*'know'd'^ a quartermaster that passed ^em. Wouldn't 
they let him and Sam off this wunst ? 

They were both sent to Coventry, despite their tears, 
and down to the last day of our tenure in Culpepper, I saw 
these wicked urchins peeping through the grates of the old 
brick jail, where they lay in the steam and vapor, among 
negroes, drunkards, and thieves, — an evidence of justice, 
which it is a pleasure to record, in this free narrative. 

I joined a mess in the Ninth New York regiment finally, 
and contrived to exist till the fifth of the month, when Pope 
moved his head-quarters to a hill back of Culpepper, and 
thereafter I lived daintily for a little while. On the 8th of 
August, however, an event occurred, which disturbed the 
wisest calculations of the correspondent and the Generals, 
The Battle of Cedar Mountain. 
21* 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GOING INTO ACTION. 

While General Pope's army was concentrating' between 
the Rappahannock and Eapidan rivers, the army of Gen- 
eral Stonewall Jackson was lying upon the south bank of 
the Rapidan, and that renowned commander's head-quarters 
were at Gordonsville, about thirty miles from Culpepper. It 
was generally presumed that Jackson had fortified Gordons- 
ville, intending to lie in wait there, or possibly to oppose 
the crossing of Pope upon the banks of the river. It was 
not believed that Jackson's force was very great, because 
the main body of the Confederates were held below Rich- 
mond, where McClellan's army still remained. The South- 
ern capital seemed to be menaced both from the North and 
the South ; but in reality, the Grand Army was re-embark- 
ing at Harrison's Bar, and sailing up the Chesapeake in de- 
tachments, to effect a junction with Pope on the plains of 
Piedmont. So important a movement could not be con- 
cealed from the Confederates, and they had resolved to an- 
nihilate Pope before McClellan's reinforcements could ar- 
rive. It was the work of two weeks to transport eighty or 
a hundred thousand men three hundred miles, and finding- 
that Burnside's corps had already landed upon the Potomac, 
Stonewall Jackson determined to cross the Rapidan and 
cripple the fragment of Pope's forces stationed at Culpep- 
per. 

Stonewall Jackson is one of the many men whose ex- 
(246) 



CAMFAIGXS OF A NON-C031BATANT. 247 

traordinaiy military genius has been developed by the civil 
war. But unlike the mass who have become famous in a 
day, and lost their laurels in a week, Jackson's glory has 
steadily increased. He was first brought into notice at 
Winchester, Vvdiere he fought a fierce battle with Banks, and 
derived the sobriquet which he has retained to the present 
time. Soon afterward, he chased Banks's army down the 
Shenandoah Valley, and across the Potomac. Afterward, 
he bore a conspicuous part in the engagement below Rich- 
mond, and was now to become prominent in the most dar- 
ing episodes of the whole war. Ilis excellence was aciw- 
ity. He scrupled at no fatigue, marched his troops over 
steep and circuitous roads, was everywhere when unex- 
pected, frad nowhere when sought, and his boldness was 
equal to his energy. He did not fear to attack overpower- 
ing numbers, if the situation demanded it. All that Gen- 
eral Lee might plan. General Jackson would dare to exe- 
cute ; and he has been, above all others, the Soult of the 
Southern war, while Stuart was its Murat, and Lee its Na- 
poleon. 

We first had intimation of the advance of Jackson on 
the afternoon of the Tth of August. Two regiments of cav- 
alry, picketed upon the Rapidan, rode pell-mell into Culpep- 
per, reporting a large Southern force at the fords, and rap- 
idly advancing. Pope at once ordered the whole of one of 
these regiments under arrest, and it was the opinion of the 
army that the approach was a feint, or, at most, a recon- 
noissance in force. Subsequent information satisfied the in- 
credulous, however, that a considerable body of troops 
were marching northward, and their outriding scouts had 
been seen at Cedar Mountain, only six miles from Culpep- 
per. The latter is one of the many woody knobs or heights 
that environ the village, but it is nearer than any other, and 
should have been occupied by Pope, simultaneously witli 
his arrival. It is scarcely a mountain in elevation, but so 
high that the clouds often envelope its crest, and it com- 



248 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-CO^!BATAXT. 

mands a view of all the surrounding country. There are 
cleared patches up its sides, and the highest of these con- 
stitutes the farm of a clergyman, after whom the eminence 
is sometimes called " Slaughter's Mountain/' At its base 
lie a few pleasant farms ; and a shallow rivulet or creek, 
called Cedar Run, crosses the road between the mountain 
and Culpepper. Upon the mountain side Jackson had 
placed his batteries, and his infantry lay in dense thickets 
and belts of woods before the hill and on each side of it. 
The position was a powerful, though not an impregnable 
one ; for batteries might readily be pushed up the slope, and 
our infantry had often ascended steeper eminences. But an 
opposing army scattered about the meadow lands below, 
would find its several components exposed to shot and 
shell, thrown from points three or four hundred feet above 
them. 

When it had been discovered that the enemy had antici- 
pated us in seizing this strong position, word was at once 
despatched to Banks and Siegel to bring up their columns 
without delay. The brigade of General Crawford was 
marched through Culpepper at noon on Friday ; and that 
afternoon, foot-sore, but enthusiastic, regiments began to 
arrive in rapid succession. 

I had been passing the morning of Friday with Colonel 
Bowman, a modest and capable gentleman, when the seren- 
ity of our converse was disturbed by a sergeant, who rode 
into camp with orders for a prompt advance in light march- 
ing order. In a twinkling all the camps in the vicinity were 
deserted, and the roads were so blocked with soldiers on my 
return, that I was obliged to ride through fields. 

I trotted rapidly into the village, and witnessed a scene 
exciting and martial beyond anything which I had remarked 
with the Army of Virginia. Regiments were pouring by all 
the roads and lanes into the main street, and the spectacle 
of thousands of bayonets, extending as far as the eye could 
reach, was enhanced by the music of a score of bands, 



CASIPxilGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 249 

throbbing all at the same moment with wild music. The 
orders of officers rang out fitfully in the din, and when the 
steel shifted from shoulder to shoulder, it was like looking 
down a long sparkling wave. Above the confusion of the 
time, the various nativities of volunteers roared their na- 
tional ballads. " St. Patrick's Day,'' intermingled with the 
weird refrain of " Bonnie Dundee," and snatches of German 
sword-songs were drowned by the thrilling chorus of the 
*' Star-Spangled Banner." Then some stentor would strike 
a stave of — 

"John Bro-srn's body lies a mouldering in the grave," 

and the wild, mournful music would be caught up by all, — 
Germans, Celts, Saxons, till the little town rang with the 
thunder of voices, all uttering the name of the grim old 
Moloch, whom — more than any one save Hunter — Vir- 
ginia hates. Suddenly, as if by rehearsal, all hats would 
go up, all baj^onets toss and glisten, and huzzas would 
deafen the winds, while the horses reared upon their 
haunches and the sabres rose and fell. Then, column by 
column, the masses passed eastward, while the prisoners in 
the Court-House cupola looked down, and the citizens 
peeped in fear through crevices of windows. 

Being unattached to the staff of any General at the time, 
and therefore at liberty as a mere spectator, I rode rapidly 
after the troops, passed the foremost regiments, and unwit- 
tingly kept to the left, which I did not discover in the ex- 
citement of the ride, till my horse was foaming and my face 
furrowed with heat drops. I saw that the way had been 
little travelled, and inquiry at a log farm-house, some dis- 
tance further, satisfied me that I had mistaken the way. 
Two men in coarse brown suits, were chopping wood here, 
and they informed me, with an oath, that the last soldiers 
seen in the neighborhood, had been Confederate pickets. A 
by-road enabled me to recover the proper route, and from 



250 CAMPAIGNS or A NON-COMBATANT. 

the top of a hill overlooking Culpepper, I had a view of 
the hamlet, nestling in its hollow ; the roads entering it, 
black with troops, and all the slopes covered with wagon- 
trains, whose white canopies seemed infinite. The skies 
were gorgeously dyed over the snug cottages and modest 
spires ; some far woods were folded in a pleasant haze ; 
and the blue mountains lifted their huge backs, voluming in 
the distance, like some boundary for humanity, with a hap- 
pier land beyond. Here I might have stood, a few monfhs 
before, and heard the church bells ; and the trees around 
me might have been musical with birds. But now the par- 
sons and the choristers were gone ; the scaffold was erected, 
the axe bare, and with a good by glance at the world and 
man, some hundreds of wretches were to drop into eter- 
nity. We have all read of the guillotine in other lands ; it 
was now before me in my own. 

As I passed into the highway again, and riding through 
narrow passages, grazing officers' knees, turning vicious 
battery horses, winding in and out of woods, making de- 
tours through pasture fields, leaping ditches, and so mak- 
ing perilous progress, I passed many friends who hailed me 
cheerfully, — here a brigadier-general who waved his hand, 
or a colonel who saluted, or a staff officer who rode out and 
exchanged inquiries or greetings, or a sergeant who winked 
and laughed. These were some of the men whose bodies 
I was to stir to-morrow with my foot, when the eyes that 
shone upon me now would be swollen and ghastly. 

Some of the privates seeing me in plain clothes, as I had 
joined the army merely as a visitor and with no idea of see- 
ing immediate service there, mistook me for a newspaper 
correspondent, which in one sense I was ; and I was greeted 
with such cries as — 

"Our Special Artist! '' 

" Our Own Correspondent ! '^ 

'' Give our Captain a setting up, you sir I '' 

"Puff our Colonel ! '' 



CAMPATGXS OF A NOX-C031BATANT, 251 

" Give me a good obituary ! '^ 

*' Where's your pass, bub ? '^ 

" Halloo ! Jenkins. Three cheers for Jenkins ! " 

I shall not soon forget one fellow, who planted himself 
in my path (his regiment had halted), and leaning upon his 
musket looked steadily into my eyes. 

" Ef I had a warrant for the devil,'' he said, " I'd arrest 
that feller." 

Many of the soldiers were pensive and thoughtful ; but 
the mass were marching to their funerals with boyish out- 
cries, apparently anxious to forget the responsibilities of 
the time. 

"Let's sing, boys." ''Oh! Get out, or I'll belt you 
over the snout." *' Halloo ! Pardner, is there water over 
there ? " " Three groans for old Jeff!" '' Hip-hip — hoo- 
roar ! Hi ! Hi ! " 

A continual explosion of small arms, in the shape of epi- 
thets, jests, imitations of the cries of sheep, cows, mules, 
and roosters, and snatches of songs, enlivened the march. 
If something interposed, or a halt was ordered, the men 
would throw themselves in the dust, wipe their foreheads, 
drink from their canteens, gossip, grin, and shout confus- 
edly, and some sought opportunities to straggle off, so that 
the regiments were materially decimated before they reached 
the field. The leading officers maintained a dignity and a 
reserve, and reined their horses together in places, to 
confer. At one time, a private soldier came out to me, 
presenting a scrap of paper, and asked me to scrawl him a 
line, which he would dictate. It was as follows : — 

" Ml) dear Mary, we are going into action soon, and I send 
you my love. Kiss baby, and if I am not killed I will write to 
you after the fight.'' The man asked me to mail the scrap at 
the first opportunity ; but the same post which carried his 
simple billet, carried also his name among the rolls of the 
dead. 

At five o'clock I overtook Crawford's brigade, drawn up 



252 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOiJf-COMBATANT. 

in front of a fine girdle of timber, in a grass field, and on 
the edge of Cedar Creek. Their ambulances had been un- 
hitched, and ranged in a row against the woods and the 
soldiers were soon formed in line of battle, extending across 
the road, with their faces toward the mountain. In this 
order they moved through the creek, and disappeared be- 
hind the ridge of a cornfield. The hill towered in front; but 
with the naked eye I could distinguish only a speck of float- 
ing something above the roof of Slaughter's white house. 
This was said to be a flag, though I did not believe it ; and 
as there were no evidences of any enemy, which I could de- 
termine, I turned my attention to the immediate necessities 
of myself and my horse. A granary lay at a little distance, 
and as I was hastening thither, a trooper came along with a 
blanket full of corn. Fortuitously, he dropped about a 
dozen ears, which I secured, and hitched my animal to a 
tree, where he munched until I had fallen asleep. The 
latter event happened in this wise. 

I had observed a slight person in the uniform of a sur- 
geon. He was dividing a large lump of pork at the time, 
and three great crackers lay before him. I approached and 
introduced myself, and in a few minutes I was a partial 
proprietor of the meat, and he a recipient of some drink. 
The same person directed me to occupy a shelf of the am- 
bulance, and when we lay down together he narrated some of 
his experiences in Martinsburg, when the Confederates occu- 
pied the place after Banks^s retreat. He had charge of a hos- 
pital at that time, and v/itnessed the entrance of the Confed- 
erate army. The wildness of the people was unbounded, he 
said, and all who had given so much as a drop of cold water 
to the invaders were pointed out and execrated. The proper- 
ties of a few, said to be Unionists, were endangered ; and 
ruffianly soldiers climbed to the windows of the hospital, 
hooting and taunting the sick. Not to be outdone in bitter- 
ness, the tenants flimg up their crutches and cheered for 
the ''Union," — that darling idea, which has marshalled a 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 253 

million of men and filled hecatombs with its champions. In 
a few days the Federals took possession of the town anew, 
and the Southern element was in turn oppressed. This is 
Civil War, — more cruel than the excesses of hereditary 
enemies. A year before these people of the Shenandoah 
were fellow-countrymen of the soldiery they contemned. 
22 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CEDAR MOUNTAIN. 

There being nothing to eat in the vicinity of the ambu- 
lances, I mounted anew at five o'clock and rode back toward 
Culpepper. No portion of the troops of Crawford were 
visible now, and only some gray smoke moved up the side 
of the mountain. A few stragglers were bathing their faces 
in Cedar Creek, and some miles in the rear lay several of 
McDowell's brigades under arms. Their muskets were 
stacked along the sides of the road, the men lay sleepily 
upon the ground, — company by company, each in its 
proper place, — the field-officers gossiping together, and the 
colors upright and unfurled. I was stopped, all the way 
along the lines, and interrogated as to what was happening 
in front. 

"Any Reb-bils out yonder?'^ asked a grim, snappish 
Colonel. 

"Guess they don't mean to fight before breakfast!" 
blurted a Captain. 

" Wish they'd cut away, anyvv^a}^, if they goin' to ! " 
muttered a chorus of privates. 

At the village there was nothing to be purchased, 
although some sutlers' stores lay at the depot, guarded by 
Provost officers. I persuaded a negro to give me a mess of 
almost raw pork, and a woman, with a child at the breast, 
cooked me some biscuit. There were many civilians and 
idle officers in the town, and the streets were lined with 

(254) 



cajvipaigns of a non-combatant. 255 

cavalry. Mr. Paine, the landlord, was losing the remnant 
of his wits, and the young ladies were playing the " Bonnie 
Blue Flag,'*' and laughing satirically at some young officers 
who listened. The correspondents began to show them- 
selves in force, and a young fellow whom I may call Chitty, 
representing a provincial journal, greatly amused me, with 
the expression of fears that there might be no engagement 
after all. Chitty was an attorney, who had forsaken a ver^^ 
moderate practice, for a press connection, and he informed 
me, in confidence, that he was gathering materials for a his- 
tory of the war. By reason of his attention to this weighty 
project, he failed to do any reporting", and as his mind was 
not very well balanced, he was commonly taken to be a 
simpleton. As there was nobody else to talk to, I amused 
myself with Chitty during the forenoon, and he narrated to 
me some doubtful intrigues which had varied his career in 
Piedmont. But Chitty had mingled in no battles, and now 
that a contest was about to take place, his heart warmed in 
anticipation. He asked me if the hottest fighting would not 
probably occur on the right, and intimated, in that event, 
his desire to carry despatches through the thickest of the 
fray. Death was welcome to Chitty if he could so distin- 
guish himself. Between Chitty and a nap in a wagon, 1 
managed to loiter out the morning, and at^ three o'clock, a 
cannon peal, so close that it shook the houses, brought my 
horse upon his haunches. For awhile I did not leave the 
village. Cannon upon cannon exploded ; the young ladies 
ceased their mirth ; the landlord staggered with white lips 
into the air, and after a couple of hours, I heard the signal 

that I knew so well a volley of musketry. Full of all 

the old impulses, I climbed into the saddle, and spurred my 
horse towards the battle-field. 

The ride over six miles of clay road was a capital school 
for my pony. Every hoof-fall brought him closer to the 
cannon, and the sound had become familiar when he reached 
the scene. At four o'clock, the musketry was close and 



256 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

effective beyond anything I had known, and now and then 
I could see, from secure j^laces, the spurts of white cannon- 
smoke far up the side of the mountain. The action was 
commenced by emulous skirmishers, who crawled from the 
woodsides, and annoyed each other from coverts of ridge, 
stump, and stone heap. A large number of Southern rifle- 
men then threw themselves into a corner of wood, consid- 
erably advanced from their main position. Their fire was 
so destructive that General Banks felt it necessary to order 
a charge. Two brigades, when the signal was given, 
marched in line of battle, out of a wood, and charged across 
a field of broken ground toward the projecting corner. As 
soon as they appeared, sharpshooters darted up from a 
stretch of scrub cedars on their right, and a battery mowed 
them down by an oblique fire from the left. The guns up 
the mountain side threw shells with beautiful exactness, and 
the concealed rifie-men in front poured in deadly showers 
of bullet and ball. As the men fell by dozens out of line, 
the survivors closed up the gaps, and pressed forward gal- 
lantly. The ground was uneven, however, and solid order 
could not be observed throughout. At length, when they 
had gained a brookside at the very edge of the wood, the 
column staggered, quailed, fell into disorder, and then fell 
back. Some of the more desperate dashed singly into the 
thicket, bayoneting their enemies, and falling in turn in 
the fierce grapple. Others of the Confederates ran from the 
wood, and engaged hand to hand with antagonists, and, in 
places, a score of combatants met sturdily upon the plain, 
lunging with knife and sabre bayonet, striking with clubbed 
musket, or discharging revolvers. But at last the broken 
lines regained the shelter of the timber, and there was a 
momentary lull in the thunder. 

For a time, each party kept in the edges of the timber, 
firing at will, but the Confederates were moving forward in 
masses by detours, until some thousands of them stood in 
the places of the few who were at first isolated. Distinct 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, 257 

charges were now made, and a large body of Federals at- 
tempted to capture the battery before Slaughter's house, 
while separate brigades charged by front and flank upon the 
impenetrable timber. The horrible results of the previous eifort 
were repeated ; the Confederates preserved their position, 
and, at nightfall, the Federals fell back a mile or more. 
From fifteen hundred to two thousand of the latter were 
slain or wounded, and, though the heat of the battle had 
lasted not more than two hours, nearly four thousand men 
upon both sides were maimed or dead. The valor of the 
combatants in either cause was unquestionable. But no 
troops in the world could have driven the Confederates out 
of the impregnable mazes of the wood. It was an error to 
expose columns of troops upon an open plain, in the face of 
imperceptible sharpshooters. The batteries should have 
shelled the thickets, and the infantry should have retained 
their concealment. The most disciplinecl troops of Europe 
would not have availed in a country of bog, barren, ditch, 
creek, forest, and mountain. Compared to the bare plain of 
Waterloo, Cedar Mountain was like the antediluvian world, 
when the surface was broken by volcanic fire into chasms 
and abysses. In this battle, the Confederate batteries, 
along the mountain side, were arranged in the form of a 
crescent, and, when the solid masses charged up the hill, 
they were butchered by enfilading fires. On the Confeder- 
ate part, a thorough knowledge of the country was mani- 
fest, and the best possible disposition of forces and means ; 
on the side of the Federals, there was zeal without discre- 
tion, and gallantry without generalship. 

During the action, '^Stonewall'' Jackson occupied a 
commanding position on the side of the mountain, where, 
glass in hand, he observed every change of position, and 
directed all the operations. General Banks was indefatig- 
able and courageous ; but he was left to fight the whole 
battle, and not a regiment of the large reserve in his rear, 
came forward to succor or relieve him. As usual, McDow- 



258 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-CO:vIBATA>^T. 

ell was cursed by all sides, and some of Banks's soldiers 
threatened to shoot him. But the nnpoiuilar Commander 
had no defence to make, and said nothing to clear up the 
doubts relative to him. lie exposed himself repeatedly, 
and so did Pope. The latter rode to the front at nightfall, 
— for what purpose no one could say, as he had been in 
Culpepper during the whole afternoon, — and he barely 
escaped being captured. The loss of Federal officers was 
ver}^ heavy. Fourteen commissioned officers were killed 
and captured out of one regiment. Sixteen commissioned 
ofiScers only remained in four regiments. One General was 
taken prisoner and several were wounded. A large 
number of field-ofScers were slain. 

During the progress of the fight I galloped from point to 
point along the rear, but could nowhere obtain a panoramic 
view. The common sentiment of civilians, that it is always 
possible to see a battle, is true of isolated contests only. 
Even the troops engaged, know little of the occurrences 
around them, and I have been assured by many soldiers 
that they have fought a whole day without so much as a 
glimpse of an enemy. The smoke and dust conceal objects, 
and where the greatest execution is done, the antagonists 
have frequently fired at a line of smoke, behind which 
columns may, or may not have been posted. 

It was not till nightfall, when the Federals gave up the 
contested ground, and fell back to some cleared fields, that 
I heard anything of the manner of action and the resulting 
losses. As soon as the firing ceased, the ambulance corps 
went ahead and began to gather up the wounded. As 
many ofiliese as could walk passed to the rear on foot, and 
the spectacle at eight o'clock was of a terrible character. 
The roads were packed with ambulances, creaking under 
fearful weights, and rod by rod, the teams were stopped, to 
accommodate other sufferers who had fallen or fainted on the 
walk. A crippled man would cling to the tail of a wagon, 
while the tongue would be burdened with two, sustaining 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COJIBATAKT. 259 

themselves by the backs of the horses. Water was sought 
for everywhere, and all were hungry. 1 met at sundry 
times, friends who had passed me, hopeful and humorous 
the day before, now crawling wearily with a shattered leg 
or dumb with a stiff and dripping jaw. To realize the 
horror of the night, imagine a common clay road, in a quiet, 
rolling country, packed with bleeding people, — the fences 
down, horsemen riding through the fields, wagons blocking 
the way, reinforcements in dark columns hurrying up, the 
shouting of the well to the ill, and the feeble replies, — in a 
word, recall that elder time when the " earth was filled with 
violence,'^ and add to the idea that the time was in the 
night. 

I assumed my old role of writing the names of the 
wounded, but when, at nine o'clock, the 10th Maine regi- 
ment — a fragment of the proud column which passed me 
in the morning — returned, I hailed Colonel Beale, and 
reined with him into a clover-field, the files following 
wearily. Tramping through the tall garbage, with few 
words, and those spoken in low tones, we stopped at length 
in a sort of basin, with the ground rising on every side of 
us. The men were placed in line, and the Company Ser- 
geants called the rolls. Some of the replies were thrilling, 
but all were prosaic : — 

"Smith!'' 

" Smithe fell at the first fire. Sergeant. Bill, here, saw 
him go down." 

''SturgisI" 

" Sam's in the ambulance, wi' his thigh broke. I don't 
believe he'll live. Sergeant ! " 

'' Thompson 1 " 

''Dead." 

" Vinton ! " 

'' Yar ! (feebly said) four fingers shot off i " 

In this way, the long lists were read over, while the sur- 
vivors chatted, laughed, and disputed, talking of the inci- 



2 GO CAlklPAIGXS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

dents of the day. Most of the men lay down in the clover, 
and some started off in couples to procure water. The 
field-ofiScers gave me some items relative to the conflict, and 
as they were ordered to remain here, I resolved to pass the 
night with them. Obtaining a great fence-rail, I lashed my 
horse to it by his halter, and, removing his saddle and 
bridle, left him free to graze in the vicinity. Then I un- 
folded my camp-bed, covered myself with a rubber blanket, 
and continued to listen to the conversation. Of course, ac- 
cusations, bitter mutterings, moodiness, and melancholy, 
prevailed. I heard these for some time, interspersed with 
sententious eulogies upon particular persons, and references 
to isolated events. The evening was one of the pleasantest 
of the year, in all that nature could contribute ; a fine star- 
light, a transparent atmosphere, a coolness, and a fragrance 
of sweet-clover blossoms. I had laid my head upon my 
arm, and shut my eyes, and felt drowsiness come upon me, 
when something hurtled through the air, and another gun 
boomed on the stillness. A shell, describing an arc of fire, 
fell some distance to our left, and, in a moment, a second 
shell passed directly over our heads. 

" 1'' said an officer; "have they moved a battery 

so close ? See ! it is just at the end of this field ! '^ 

I looked back ! At the top of the basin in which we lay, 
something flashed up, throwing a glare upon the woody 
background, and a shell, followed by a shock, crashed ric- 
ochetting, directly in a line with us, but leaped, fortunately, 
above us, and continued its course far beyond. 

"The^^mean 'em for us," said the same voice; " thej^ 
see these lights where the fools have been warming their 
cofiee. Halloo I '^ 

Another glare of fire revealed the grouped men and 
horses around the battery, and for a moment I thought the 
missile had struck among us. There was a splutter, as of 
shivering metal flying about, and, with a sort of intuition, 
the whole regiment rose and ran. I started to my feet and 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 261 

looked for my horse. His ears were erect; his eyeballs dis- 
tended, and his nostrils were tremulous with fright. A 
fifth shell, so perfectly in range that I held my breath, and 
felt my heart grow cold, came toward and passed me, and, 
with a toss of his head, the nag flung up the -rail as if it had 
been a feather. He seemed literally to juggle it, and it 
flitted here and there, so that I dared not approach him. A 
favorable opportunity at length ensued, and I seized the 
animal by his halter. He was now wild with panic, and 
sprang toward me as if to trample me. In vain I endeav- 
ored to pull him toward the saddle. Fresh projectiles 
darted beside and above us, and the last of these seemed to 
pass so close that I could have reached and touched it. 
The panic took possession of me. I grasped my camp-bed, 
rather by instinct than by choice, and, holding it desperately 
under my arm, took to my heels. 

It was a long distance to the bottom of the clover-field, 
and the swift iron followed me remorselessly. At one mo- 
ment, when a shell burst full in my face, half blinding me, 
I felt weak to faintness, but still I ran. I had wit enough 
to avoid the high road, which I knew to be packed with fu- 
gitives, and down which, I properly surmised, the enemy 
would send his steady messengers. Once I fell into a ditch, 
and the breath was knocked out of my body, but I rolled 
over upon my feet with marvellous sprightliness, till, at 
last, when I gained a corn-field, my attention was diverted 
to a strange, rattling noise behind me. I turned and looked. 
It was my horse, the rail dangling between his legs, his 
eyes on fire in the night. As we regarded each other, a 
shell burst between us. He dashed away across the inhos- 
pitable fields, and I fell into the high road among the routed. 
Expletives like these ensued : — 

*' Sa-a-ay ! Hoss I Pardner I Are you going to ride over 
this wounded feller ? '^ 

" Friend, have you a drop of water for a man that's 
fainted here ? '^ 



262 CAMPAIGNS OF A XON-COMBATANT. 

"Halloo ! Buster ! Keep that bayonitout o' my eye, if 
you please ! '^ 

" Where's Gea. Banks ? I hearn say he's a prisoner/' 

''I do' know!'' 

'' Was we licked, do you think ? " 

"No! We warn't notliin' o' the kind. Siegel's out- 
flanked 'em and okkepies the field. A man jus' told me 
so." 

"Huzza! Hearties, cheer up I Siegel's took the field, 
and Stonewall Jackson's dead." 

" Three cheers for Siegel." 



" Hoorooar, hoor " 

" Oh ! Get out ! That's all blow. Don't try stuff me 1 
We're lathered ; that's the long and shawt of it." 

" Is that so ? Boys, I guess we're beat ! " 

Such was the character of exclamations that ran here and 
there, and after a little volley of them had been let off, a 
long pause succeeded, when only the sighs of the injured 
and the tramp of men and nags broke the silence. Over- 
head the starlight and the blue sky ; on either side the roll- 
ing, shadowy fields ; and wrapping the horizon in a gray, 
grisly girdle, the reposing woods plentiful with dew. Na- 
ture was putting forth all her still, sweet charms, as if to 
make men witness the damned contrast of their own wrath, 
violence, and murder. Even thus, perhaps, — I reasoned, 
— in the days of old, did the broken multitudes of Xerxes 
return by the shores of the golden Archipelago ; and the 
Hellespont shone as peacefully as these silvernesses of 
earth and firmament. The dulness of history became in- 
vested with new intelligence. I filled in the details of a 
thousand routs conned in school-days, when only the dry 
outlines lay before me. They were mysteries before, and 
lacked the warmness of life and truth ; but now I savj 
them ! The armor and the helmets fell away, with all other 
trappings of custom, language, and ceremony, f his pale 
giant, who walked behind the ambulance, leaning upon the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A In ON-COMBATANT. 2G3 

footboard, was the limping Achilles, with the arrow of 
Paris festering in his heel. This ancient veteran, with his 
back to the field, was the fugitive ^neas, leaving Troy be- 
hind. And these, around me, belonged to the columns of 
Barbazona, scattered at Legnano by the revengeful Mila- 
nese. Cobweb, and thick dust, and faded parchment had 
somewhat softened those elder events ; but in their day 
they were tangible, practical, and prosaic, like this scene. 
Years will roll over this, as over those, and folks will read 
at firesides, half doubtfully, half wonderingly, the story of 
this bafflement, when no fragment of its ruin remains. It 
was a profound feeling that I should thus be walking down 
the great retreat of time, and that the occurrences around 
me should be remembered forever ! 

There were a few prisoners in the mass, walking before 
cavalry-men. Nobody interfered with them, and they were 
not in a position to feel elated. Now and then, when we 
reached an ambulance, the fugitives would press around it 
to inquire if any of their friends were within. Eough 
recognitions would ensue, as thus : — 

" Bobby, is that you, back there 'i — Bobby Baker ? ^' 

" Who is it ? '' (feebly uttered.) 

"Me, Bobby — Josh Wiggins. Are you shot bad, Bob- 
by?'^ 

" Shot in the thigh ; think the bone's broke. You 
haven't got a drop of water, have you ? '' 

" No, Bobby ; wish I had. Have any more of our boys 
been hurt that you know of? " 

" Switzer is dead ; Bill Cringle and Jonesy are prisoners ; 
' Pud ' White is in the ambulance ahead ; ' Fol ' Thompson's 
lost an arm ; that's all I know." 

When we had gone two miles or more, we found a pro- 
vost column drawn across the road, and a mounted officer 
interrogating all who attempted to pass : — 

" Stop there I You're not wounded.'^ 

"Yes, lam." 



2G4 CASIPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB ATAKT. 

" Pass on I Halt boy ! Go back. Men, close up there. 
Stop that boy.'' 

*'I am sun-struck, Major.'' 

" You lie ! Drive him back. Go back, now I " 

Beyond this the way was comparative^ clear ; but as I 
knew that other guards held the road further on, I passed 
to the right, and with the hope of finding a rill of water, 
went across some grass fields, keeping toward the low 
places. The fields were very still, and I heard only the 
subdued noises wafted from the road ; but suddenly I found 
myself surrounded by men. They were lying in groups in 
the tall grass, and started up suddenly, like the clansmen of 
Roderick Dhu. At first I thought myself a prisoner, and 
these some cunning Confederates, who had lain in wait. 
But, to my surprise, they were Federal uniforms, and were 
simply skulkers from various regiments, who had been hid- 
iug here during the hours of battle. Some of these miser- 
able wretches asked me the particulars of the fight, and 
when told of the defeat, muttered that they were not to be 
hood-winked and slaughtered. 

" I was sick, anyway," said one fellow, " and felt like 
droppin' on the road." 

" I didn't trust my colonel," said another ; " he ain't no 
soldier." 

" I'm tired of the war, anyhow," said a third, " and my 
time's up soon ; so I shan't have my head blown off." 

As I progressed, dozens of these men appeared ; the fields 
were strewn with them ; a true man would rather have been 
lying with the dead on the field of carnage, than here, 
among the craven and base. I came to a spring at last, and 
the stragglers surrounded it in levies. One of them gave 
me a cup to dip some of the crystal, and a prayerful feeling 
came over me as the cooling draught fell over my dry palate 
and parched throat. Regaining the road, I encountered 
reinforcements coming rapidly out of Culpepper, and among 
them was the 9th New York. My friend, Lieutenant Dra- 



ca:ripaigns of a non-combatant. 265 

per, recognized me, and called out that he should see me on 
the morrow, if he was not killed meantime. Culpepper was 
filling with fugitives when I passed up the main street, and 
they were sprinkled along the sidewalks, gossiping with 
each other. The wounded were being carried into some of 
the dwellings, and when I reached the Virginia Hotel, many 
of them lay upon the porch. I placed my blanket on a 
clean place, threw myself down exhaustedly, and dropped 
to sleep directly. 
23 



CHAPTER XXV. 

OUT WITH A BURYING PAUTT. 

When I rose, at ten o'clock on the morning of Sunday, 
August 10, the porcli was covered with wounded people. 
Some fierce sunbeams were gliding under the roof, shining 
in the poor fellows^ eyes, and they were stirring wearily, 
though asleep. Picking my way among the prostrate 
figures, I resorted to the pump in the rear of the tavern for 
the purpose of bathing my face. A soldier stood there on 
guard, and he refused to give me so much as a draught of 
water. The wounded needed every drop, and there were 
but a few wells in the town. I strolled through the main 
street, now crowded with unfortunates, and pausing at the 
Court House, found the seat of justice transmuted to a head- 
quarters for surgeons, where amputations were being per- 
formed. Continuing by a street to the left, I came to the 
depot, and here the ambulances were gathered with their 
scores of inmates. A tavern contiguous to the railway was 
also a hospital, but in the basement I found the transpor- 
tation agents at breakfast, and they gave me a bountiful 
meal. 

It was here arranged between myself and an old friend 
—. a newspaper correspondent who had recently married, 
and whose wife awaited him at Willard's in Washington — 
that he should proceed at once to New York with the out- 
line of the fight, and that I should follow him next day 
(having, indeed, to report for duty and fresh orders at 

(26G) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT, 267 

Head-quarters of the army in Wasliington,) with particulars 
and the lists of killed. I commenced my part of the labors 
at once, employinfj three persons to assist me, and we dis- 
tricted Culpepper, so that no one should interfere with the 
grounds of the other. My own part of the work embraced 
both hotel-hospitals, the names and statements of the prison- 
ers of the Court House loft, and interviews with some of the 
generals and colonels who lay at various private residences. 
The business was not a desirable one ; for hot hospital rooms 
were now absolutely reeking, and many of the victims were 
asleep. It would be inhuman to awaken these ; but in 
many cases those adjacent knew nothing, and with all as- 
siduity the rolls must be imperfect. I found one man who 
had undergone a sort of mental paralysis and could not tell 
me his own name. However, I groped through the several 
chambers where the bleeding littered the bare floors. Some 
of them were eating voraciously, and buckets of ice-water 
were being carried to and fro that all might drink. Some 
male nurses were fanning the sleeping people with boughs 
of cedar ; but the flies filled the ceiling-, and, attracted by 
the wounds, they kept up a constant buzzing. I imagined 
that mortification would rapidly ensue in this broiling at- 
mosphere. A couple of trains were being prepared below, 
to transport the sufferers to Washington, and from time to 
time individuals were carried into the air and deposited in 
common freight-cars upon the hard floors. Here they were 
compelled to wait till late in the evening, for no trains were 
allowed to leave the village during the day. At the Vir- 
ginia Hotel, I visited, among others, the room in which I 
had lodged when I first came to Culpepper. Eight persons 
now occupied it, and three of them lay across the bed. I 
took the first manV name, and as the man next to him 
seemed to be asleep, I asked the first man to nudge him 
gently. 

" I don't think he is alive/' said the man ; '* he hasn't 
moved since midnight. I've spoken to him already." 



268 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

I pulled a blanket from the head of the figure, and the 
tangled hair, yellow skin, and stifiened jaw told all the 
story. The other man looked uneasily into the face of the 
corpse and then lay down with his back toward it. 

" I hope they'll take it out," said he, '' I don't want to 
sleep beside it another night. '^ 

The guard at the Court House allowed me to ascend to 
the loft, and the prisoners — forty or fifty in number — 
clustered around me. They had received, a short time be- 
fore, their day's allotment of crackers and bread, and some 
of them were sitting in the cupola, with their bare legs 
hanging over the rails. They were anxious to have their 
names printed, and I learned from the less cautious the 
names of the brigades to which they belonged. Before I left 
the room I had obtained the number of regiments in Jack- 
son's command and the names of his brigadier-generals. 
Some prisoners arrived while I was noting these matters. 
They had been sent to pick up arms, canteens, cartridge- 
boxes, etc., from the battle-field, and some of our cavalry 
had ridden them down and captured them. They were a 
little disconi'posed, but said, for the most part, that they 
were weary of the war and glad to be in custody. As a 
rule. Northern and Southern troops have the same general 
manners and appearances. These were more ragged than 
any Federals I had ever known, and their appetites were 
voracious. 

I found General Geary, a Pennsylvania brigade Com- 
mander, in the dwelling of a lady near the end of the town. 
He had received a bullet in the arm, and, I believe, submit- 
ted to amputation afterward. He was a tall, athletic man, 
upwards of six feet in height, and a citizen of one of the 
mountainous interior counties of the Quaker State. His life 
had been marked by much adventure, and he had been 
elevated to many important civil positions in various quar- 
ters of the Republic. II? occupied a leading place in the 
Mexican war, and was afterward Mayor of San Francisco 



CAMPAIGNS OF A i\OX-C03il5ATAXT. 2G9 

and Governor of Kansas. He acted with the Southern wing 
of the Democratic party, and was discreetly ambitious, pro- 
moting the agricultural interests of his commonwealth, and 
otherwise fulfilling useful civil functions. He was a fine 
exemplar of the American gentleman, preserving the better 
individualities of his countrymen, but discarding those 
grosser traits, which have given us an unenviable name 
abroad. Geary could not do a mean thing, and his courage 
came so naturally to him that he did not consider it any 
cause of pride. The bias of party, which in America dis- 
eases the best natures, had in some degree affected the 
General. He was prone to go with his party in any event, 
when often, I think, his fine intelligence would have 
promped him to an independent course. But I wish that all 
our leading men possessed his manliness, for then more dig- 
nity and self-respect, and less " smartness,^^ might be ap- 
parent in our social and political organizations. 

He was lying on his back, with his shattered arm band- 
aged, and resting^ on his breast. Twitches of keen pain 
shot across his face now and then, but he received me with 
a simple courtesy that made his patience thrice heroic. He 
did not speak of himself or his services, though I knew both 
to be eminent ; but McDowell had insulted him, as he rode 
disabled from the field, and Geary felt the sting of the word 
more than the bullet. He had ventured to say to McDowell 
that the Reserves were badly needed in front, and the 
proud " Regular" had answered the officious " Volunteer," 
to the effect that he knev/ his own business. Not the least 
among the causes of the North's inefficiency will be found 
this ill feeling between the professional and the civil soldiery. 
A Regular contemns a Volunteer ; a Volunteer hates a 
Regular. I visited General Augur — badly wounded — in 
the drawing-room of the hotel, ahd paused a moment to 
watch Colonel Donnelly, mortally wounded, lying on a 
spread in the hall. The latter lingered a day in fearful 
agony ; but he was a powerful man in physique, and he 
23* 



270 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATANT. 

fought with death through a bloody sweat, never moaning 
nor complaining, till he fell into a blessed torpidity, and so 
yielded up his soul. The shady little town was a sort of 
Golgotha now. Feverish eyes began to burn into one's 
heart, as he passed along the sidewalks. Ked hospital flags, 
hung like regalia from half the houses. A table for ampu- 
tations was set up in the open air, and nakedness glared 
hideously upon the sun. How often have they brought out 
corpses in plain boxes of pine, and shut them away without 
sign, or ceremony, or tears, driving a long stake above the 
headboard. The ambulances came and went, till the line 
seemed stretching to the crack of doom ; while, as in con- 
templation of further murder, the white-covered ammunition- 
teams creaked southward, and mounted Provosts charged 
upon the skulkers, driving them to a pen, whence they were 
forwarded to their regiments. Old Mr. Paine, the landlord, 
tottered up to me, with a tear in his eye, and said — 
" My good Lord, sir ! Who is responsible for this ? " 
He did not mean to suggest argument. It was the lan- 
guage of a human heart pitying its brotherhood. 

At twelve o'clock I started anew for the field, and fell in 
with Captain Chitty on the way. He stated that his cour- 
age during the fight surpassed his most heroic expectations, 
and added, in an undertone, that he was deliberating as to 
whether he should allow his name to be mentioned officially, 
since several military men were urging that honor upon him. 
I dissuaded Chitty from this intent, upon the ground that 
his reputation for modesty might be sacrificed. Chitty at 
once said that he would take my advice. We encountered 
Surgeon Ball, of Ohio, after a time, and he informed us that 
a day's armistice had been agreed upon, to allow for the 
burial of the dead. The work of interment was already 
commenced in front, and the surgeon had been ordered to 
see to the wounded, some of whom still lay on the places 
where they fell. He allowed us to accompany him in the 
capacity of cadets, but we first diverged a little from the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMDATAKT. 271 

road, that he might obtain his portmanteau of instruments. 
I fell into a little dijQScult}'- here, by unwittingly asking 
aloud of the 28th Pennsylvania regiment, if that was not 
the organization which hid itself during the fight ? The 
28th had been ordered, on the morning of Saturday, to oc- 
cupy Telegraph Mountain, — an elevation in the rear of 
Cedar Mountain, — which was used for a Federal signal- 
post. Nobody having notified the 28th to return to camp, 
they remained on the mountain, passively witnessing the 
carnage, and came away in the night. But although my 
remark was jestingly said, the knot of soldiers who heard 
it were intensely excited. They spoke of taking me " off 
that hoss,'^ and called me a New York " Snob,'^ who 
" wanted his head punched. '^ This irate feeling may be 
attributed to the rivalry which exists between the ^'Em- 
pire ^' and the " Keystone " States, the latter being very 
jealous of the former, and claiming to have sent more troops 
to the war than any other commonwealth. The 28th volun- 
teers doubtless expected a terrific onslaught from the next 
issue of the Philadelphia papers. 

The reserve, which had lain some miles in the rear the 
previous evening, were now massed close to the field, but 
in the woods, that the enemy might not count their num- 
bers from his high position. Stopping at times to chat with 
brother ofScers, at last I reached the meadow whence I had 
been driven the previous evening. I looked for my nag in 
vain. One soldier told me that he had seen him at daylight 
limping along the high road ; but after sundry wild-goose 
chases, I gave up the idea of recovering him. 

At last I passed the outlying batteries, with their black 
muzzles scanning the battle-ground, and ascending the clo- 
ver field, came upon the site of the battery which had so 
discomfited us the previous night. A signal vengeance 
had overtaken it. Some splinters of wheel and an over- 
turned caisson, with eight horses lying in a group, — their 
hoofs extended like index boards, their necks elongated 



272 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

along the ground, and their bodies swollen — were the re- 
sults of a single shell trained upon the battery by a cool 
artillerist. Beyond, the road and fields were strown with 
knapsacks, haversacks, jackets, canteens, cartridge-boxes, 
shoes, bayonets, knives, buttons, belts, blankets, girths, and 
sabres. Now and then a mule or a horse lay at the road- 
side, with the clay saturated beneath him ; and some of the 
tree-tops, in the depth of the v/oods, were scarred, split, 
and barked, as if the lightning had blasted them. Now 
passing a disabled wagon, now marking a dropped horse- 
shoe, now turning a capsized ambulance, now regarding a 
perfect wilderness of old clothes, we emerged from the tim- 
ber at last, and came to the place where I had slept on the 
eve of the battle. A hurricane had apparently swept the 
country here, and the fences had been transported bodily. 
Sometimes the ground looked, for limited areas, as if there 
had been a rain of kindling-wood ; and there were furrows 
in the clay, like those made by some great mole which had 
ploughed into the bowels of the earth. All the tree boles 
were pierced and perforated, and boughs had been severed 
so that they littered the way. Cedar Creek ran merrily 
across what had been the road, — the waters limpid and cool 
as before, — and when I passed beyond, I entered the region 
of dead men. Some poisonous Upas had seemingly grown 
here, so that adventurers were prostrated by its exhalations. 
^ A tributary rivulet formed with the creek a triangular en- 
closure of ground, where most of the Federals had fallen. 
To the left of the road stood a cornfield ; to the right a 
stubble-field, dotted with stone heaps : deep woods formed 
the background to these, and scrub-timber, irregularly dis- 
posed, the foreground. On the right of the stubble lay a 
great stretch of *' barren," spotted with dwarf cedars, and 
on the left of the cornfield stood a white farm-house, with 
orchards and outbuildings ; beyond, the creek had hollowed 
a ravine among the hills, and the far distance was bounded 
by the mountains on the Rapidan. In the immediate front. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB ATAXT. 273 

towered Cedar Mountain, with woods at its base ; and the 
roadway in which I stood, lost itself a little way on in the 
mazes of the thicket. Looking down one of the rows of 
corn, I saw the first corpse — the hands flung stiffly back, 
the feet set stubbornly, the chin pointing upward, the fea- 
tures losing their sharpness, the skin blackening, the eyes 
great and white — 

" A heap of death — a chaos of cold clay." 

Turning into the cornfield, we came upon one man with a 
spade, and another man lying at his feet. He was digging 
a grave, and when we paused to note the operation, he 
touched his cap : — 

"Pardner o' mine,'' he said, indicating the body ; "him 
and I fit side by side, and we agreed, if it could be done, 
to bury each other. There ain't no sich man as that lost 
out o' the army, private or officer, — with all respect to 
you." 

It was a eulogy that sounded as if more deserved, be- 
cause it was homely. There are some that I have read, 
much finer, but not as honest. At little distances we saw 
parties of ten or twenty, opening trenches, the tributary 
brook, only, dividing the Confederate and Federal fatigue 
parties. Close to this brook, in the cornfield, lay a fallen 
trunk of a tree, and four men sat upon it. Two of them 
wore gray uniforms, two w(^re blue. The latter were Gens. 
Roberts and Hartsufi" of the Federal army. They were 
waiting for Gens. Stuart and Early, of the Confederate 
army : and the four were to define the period of the armis- 
tice. The men in gray were Major Hintham of Mississippi, 
and Lieut. Elliott Johnston of Maryland. Hintham was a 
lean, fiery, familiar man, who wore the uniform of several 
field-marshals. An ostrich feather was stuck in his soft hat 
and clasped by a silver star upon a black velvet ground. A 
golden cord formed his hat-band, and two tassels, as huge 
as those of drawing-room curtains, fell upon his back. His 



274 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

collar was plentifully embroidered as well as bis coat- 
sleeves, and a black seam ran down his trousers. He wore 
spurs of prodigious size, and looked, in the main, like a tra- 
gedian about to appear upon the stage. The other man 
was young, stout, and good humored ; and he talked sen- 
tentiously, with a little vanit}^, but much courtesy. The 
Federals had nothing to say to these, they dealt only with 
equals in rank. It became a matter of professional ambi- 
tion, now, to obtain the greatest amount of information 
from these Confederates, without appearing to depart from 
any conventionality of the armistice. I got along very well 
till Chitty came up, and his interrogatives were so pert and 
pointed that he very nearly spoiled the entire labbr. Young 
Johnston was a Baltimorean, and wished his people to know 
something of him ; he gave me a card, stated that he was 
one of Gen. Garnett's aids, and had opened the armistice, 
early in the day, by riding into the Federal lines with a flag 
of truce. By detachments, new bodies of Confederate ofiS- 
cers joined us, most of them being young fellows in gray 
suits : and at length Gen. Early rode down the hillside and 
nodded his head to our party. 

It was the custom of our newspapers to publish, with its 
narrative of each battle, a plan of the field ; and in further- 
ance of this object, having agreed to act for my absent 
friend, I moved a little way from the place of parley, and 
laying my paper on the pommel of my saddle proceeded to 
sketch the relative positions ofl'oad, brook, mountain, and 
woodland. While thus busily engaged, and congratulating 
myself upon the fine opportunities afforded me, a lithe, in- 
durated, severe-looking horseman rode down the hill, and 
reining beside me, said — 

"Are you making a sketch of our position ? '' 

" Not for any military purpose. '^ 

"For what?'' 

" For a newspaper engraving.'' 

"Umph!" 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 275 

The man rode past me to the log, and when I had finished 
my transcript, I resumed my phice at the group. The new 
comer was Major General J. E. B. Stuart, one of the most fa- 
mous cavalry leaders in the Confederate army. He was 
inquiring for General Hartsuff, with whom he had been 
a fellow-cadet at West Point ; but the Federal General had 
strolled ofi", and in the interval Stuart entered into familiar 
converse with the party. He described the Confederate 
uniform to me, and laughed over some reminiscences of his 
raid around McClellan's army. 

"That performance gave me a Major-Generalcy, and my 
saddle cloth there, was sent from Baltimore as a reward, by 
a lady whom I never knew.'' 

Stuart exhibited what is known in America as " airi- 
ness," and evidently loved to talk of his prowess. Directly 
Gen. Hartsuff returned, and the forager rose, with a grim 
smile about his mouth — 

" Hartsuff, God bless you, how-de-do ? *' 

'' Stuart, hovf are you ? '' 

They took a quiet turn together, speaking of old school- 
days, perhaps ; and when they came back to the log, Sur- 
geon Ball produced a bottle of whiskey, out of which all the 
Generals drank, wishing each other an early peace. 

" Here's hoping you may fall into our hands," said 
Stuart ; '' we'll treat you well at Richmond ! ' 

'' The same to you ! " said Hartsuff, and they all laughed. 

It was a strange scene, — this lull in the hurricane. Early 
was a North Carolinian, who lost nearly his whole brigade 
at Williamsburg. He wore a single star upon each shoul- 
der, and in other respects resembled a homely farmer. He 
kept upon his horse, and had little to say. Crawford was 
gray and mistrustful, calmly measuring Stuart with his eye, 
as if he intended to challenge him in a few minutes. Hart- 
suff was fair and burly, with a boyish face, and seemed a 
little ill at ease. Stuart sat upon a log, in careless posture, 
working his jaw till the sandy gray beard brushed his chin 
and became twisted in his teeth. Around^ on foot and on 



A 



276 CA5IPAIGNS OF A XOXr-COMBATANT. 

horse, lounged idle officers of both armies ; and the little 
rill that trickled behind us was choked in places with 
corpses. A pleasanter meeting could not have been held, 
if this were a county training. The Surgeon told Gen. 
Stuart that some of his relatives lived near the Confederate 
Capital, and as the General knew them, he related trifling 
occurrences happening in their neighborhoods, so that the 
meeting took the form of a roadside gossip, and Stuart 
might have been a plain farmer jaunting home from market. 
The General, who was called '' JEB " by his associates, so 
far relented finally as to give me leave to ride within the 
Confederate outer lines, and Lieut. Johnson accompanied 
me. The corpses lay at frequent points, and some of the 
wounded who had not been gathered up, remained at the 
spots where they had fallen. One of these, whose leg had 
been broken, was incapable of speaking, and could hardly 
be distinguished from the lifeless shapes around him. The 
number of those who had received their death wound on the 
edge of the brook, while in the act of leaping across was very 
great. I fancied that their faces retained the mingled ardor 
and agony of the endeavor and the pang. There seemed to 
be no system in the manner of interment, and many of the 
Federals had thrown down their shovels, and strolled across 
the boundary, to chaff and loiter with the ''Butternuts." 
No one, whom I saw, exhibited an}'- emotion at the strewn 
spectacles on every side, and the stories I had read of the 
stony-heartedness during the plague, were more than 
rivalled by these charnel realities. Already corruption was 
violating the " temples of the living God." The heat of the 
day and the general demoralizing influences of the climate, 
were making havoc with the shapely men of yesterday, and 
nature seemed hastening to reabsorb, and renew by her 
marvellous processes, what was now blistering and bur- 
dening her surface. Enough, however, of this. Satiated, 
with the scenes of war, my ambition now was to extend my 
observations to the kingdoms of the Old World. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT IN ENGLAND. 

The boy's vague dream of foreign adventure had passed 
away ; my purpose was of a tamer and more practical cast ; 
it was resolved to this problem : '' How could I travel 
abroad and pay my expenses ? " 

Evidently no money could be made by home correspond- 
ence. The new order of journals had no charity for fine 
moral descriptions of church steeples, ruined castles, and 
picture galleries ; I knew too little of foreign politics to give 
the Republic its semi-weekly '' sensation ; '' and exchange 
was too high at the depreciated value of currency to yield 
me even a tolerable reward. But might I not reverse the 
policy of the peripatetics, and, instead of turning my 
European experiences into American gold, make my knowl- 
edge of America a bill of credit for England ? 

What capital had I for this essay ? I was twenty-one 
years of age ; the last three years of my minority had been 
passed among the newspapers ; I knew indifferently well 
the distribution of parties, the theory of the Government, 
the personalities of public men, the causes of the great civil 
strife. And I had mounted to my saddle in the beginning 
of the war, and followed the armies of McClellan and Pope 
over their sanguinary battle-fields. The possibility thrilled 
me like a novel discovery, that the Old \¥orld might be 
willing to hear of the New, as I could depict it, fresh from 
the theatre of action. At great expense foreign correspond- 
2i ' (277) 



278 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

ents had been sent to our shores, whose ignorance and con- 
fidence had led them into egregious blunders ; for their 
travelling outlay merely, I would have guaranteed thrice 
the information, and ray sanguine conceit half persuaded me 
that I could present it as acceptably. I did not wait to 
ponder upon this suggestion. The guns of the second 
action of Bull Run growled a farewell to me as I resigned 
my horse and equipments to a successor. With a trifle of 
money, I took passage on a steamer, and landed at Liver- 
pool on the first of October, 1862. 

Among my acquaintances upon the ship was a semi- 
literary adventurer from Nev/ England. I surmised that his 
funds were not more considerable than my own ; and 
indeed, when he comprehended my plans, he confessed as 
much, and proposed to join enterprises with me. 

" Did you ever make a public lecture ? '' he asked. 

Now I had certain blushing recollections of having enter- 
tained a suburban congregation, long before, with didactic 
critiques upon Byron, Keats, and the popular poets. I re- 
plied, therefore, misgivingly, in the affirmative, and Hipp, 
the interrogator, exclaimed at once — 

*' Let us make a lecturing tour in England, and divide the 
expenses and the work ; you will describe the war, and I 
will act as your agent." 

With true Yankee persistence Hipp developed his idea, 
and I consented to try the experiment, though with grave 
scruples. It would require much nerve to talk to strange 
people upon an excitable topic ; and a camp fever, which 
among other things I had gained on the Chickahominy, had 
enfeebled me to the last degree. 

However, I went to work at once, inditing the pages in a 
snug parlor of a modest Liverpool inn, while Hipp sounded 
the patrons and landlord as to the probable success of our 
adventure. Opinions differed ; public lectures in the Old 
World had been generally gratuitous, except in rare cases, 
but the genial Irish proprietor of the Post advised me to go 
on without hesitation. 



CAMPAIGNS or A NOX-COMBATANT. 279 

We selected for the initial night a Lancashire sea-side 
town, a summer resort for the people of Liverpool, and 
filled at that time with invalids and pleasure-seekers. Hipp, 
who was a sort of American Crichton, managed the business 
details with consummate tact. I was announced as the 
eye-witness and participator of a hundred actions, fresh 
from the bloodiest fields and still smelling of saltpetre. My 
horse had been shot as I carried a General's orders under 
the fire of a score of batteries, and I was connected with 
journals whose reputations were world-wide. Disease had 
compelled me to forsake the scenes of my heroism, and 1 had 
consented to enlighten the Lancashire public, through the 
solicitation of the nobility and gentry. Some of the latter 
had indeed honored the affair with their patronage. 

We secured the three village newspapers by writing them 
descriptive letters. The parish rector and the dissenting 
preachers were waited upon and presented v/ith family 
tickets ; while we placarded the town till it was scarcely 
recognizable to the oldest inhabitant. 

On the morning of the eventful day I arrived in the place. 
The best room of the best inn had been engaged for me, 
and waiters in white aprons, standing in rows, bowed me 
over the portal. The servant girls and gossips had fugitive 
peeps at me through the cracks of my door, and I felt for 
the first time all the oppressiveness of greatness. As I 
walked on the quay where the crowds were strolling, look- 
ing out upon the misty sea, at the donkeys on the beach, 
and at the fishing-smacks huddled under the far-reaching- 
pier, I saw my name in huge letters borne on the banner of 
a bill-poster, and all the people stopping to read as they 
wound in and out among them. 

How few thought the thin, sallow young man, in wide 
breeches and square-toed boots, who shambled by them so 
shamefacedly, to be the veritable Mentor who had crossed 
the ocean for their benefit. Indeed, the embarrassing 
responsibility I had assumed now appeared to me in all its 
vividness. 



280 CAMPAIGNS OF A N02^-C0MBATANT. 

My confidence sensibly declined ; my sensitiveness 
amounted to nervousness ; I had half a mind to run away 
and leave the show entirely to Hipp. But when I saw that 
child of the Mayflower stolidly, shrewdly going about his 
business, working the wires like an old operator, making 
the largest amount of thunder from so small a cloud, I was 
rebuked of m}^ faintheartedness. In truth, not the least of 
my misgivings was Hipp's extraordinary zeal. He gave 
the townsmen to understand that I was a prodigy of ora- 
tory, whose battle-sketches v/ould harrow up their souls 
and thrill them like a martial summons. It brought the 
blush to my face to see him talking to knots of old men 
after the fashion of a town crier at a puppet-booth, and I 
wondered whether I occupied a more reputable rank, after 
all, than a strolling gymnast, giant, or dwarf. 

As the twilight came on my position became ludicrously 
unenviable. The lights in the town-hall were lit. I passed 
pallidly twice or thrice, and would have given half my for- 
tune if the whole thing had been over. But the minutes 
went on ; the interval diminished ; I faced the crisis at last 
and entered the arena. 

There sat Hipp, taking money at the head of the stairs, 
with piles of tickets before him ; and as he rose, gravely 
respectful, the janitor and some loiterers took off their hats 
while I passed. I entered the little bare dressing-room ; 
my throat was parched as fever, my hands were hot and 
tremulous ; I felt my heart sag. How the rumble of ex- 
pectant feet in the audience-room shook me ! I called my- 
self a poltroon, and fingered my neck-tie, and smoothed my 
hair before the mirror. Another burst of impatient expec- 
tation made me start ; I opened the door, and stood before 
my destiny. 

The place was about one third filled with a representative 
English audience, the males preponderating in number. 
They watched me intently as 1 mounted the steps of the 
rostrum and arranged my port-folio upon a musical tripod ; 



CAMPAIGISrS OF A NO:s^-C05IBATAXT. 281 

then I seated mj^self for a moment, and tried to still the 
beating of my foolish heart. 

How strangely acute were my perceptions of everything, 
before me I I looked from face to face and analyzed the ex- 
pressions, counted the lines down the corduroy pantaloons, 
measured the heavily-shod English feet, numbered the rows 
of benches and the tubes of the chandeliers, and figured up 
the losing receipts from this unremunerative audience. 

Then I rose, coughed, held the house for the last time in 
severe review, and repeated — 

''Ladies and Gentlemen — A grand contest agitates 
America and the world. The people of the two sections of 
the great North American Republic, having progressed in 
harmony for almost a century, and become a formidable 
power among the nations, are now divided and at enmity ; 
they have consecrated with blood their fairest fields, and 
built monuments of bones in their most beautiful val- 
leys/' etc. 

For perhaps five minutes everything went on smoothly. 
I was pleased with the clearness of my voice ; then, as I re- 
ferred to the origin of the war, and denounced the traitorous 
conspiracy to disrupt the republic, faint mutterings arose, 
amounting to interruptions at last. The sympathies of my 
audience were, in the main, with the secession. There were 
cheers and counter cheers ; storms of " Hear, hear," and 
" No, no,'' until a certain youth, in a sort of legal monkey- 
jacket and with ponderously professional gold seals, so dis- 
tinguished himself by exclamations that I singled him out 
as a mark for my bitterest periods. 

But while I was thus the main actor in this curious scene, 
a strange, startling consciousness grew apace upon me ; 
the room was growing dark ; my voice replied to me like a 
far, hollow echo ; I knew — I knew that I was losing my 
consciousness — that I Avas about to faint ! Words cannot 
describe my humiliation at this discovery. I set my lips 
hard and straightened my limbs ; raised my voice to a 
24* 



282 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOIv-COMBATANT. 

shrill, defiant pitch, and struggled in the dimming horror to 
select my adversary in the monkey-jacket and overwhelm 
him with bitter apostrophes. In vain ! The novelty, the 
excitement, the enervation of that long, consuming fever, 
mastered my overtaxed phj^sique. I knew that, if I did not 
cease, I should fall senseless to the floor. Only in the last 
bitter instant did I confess my disability with the best grace 
I could assume. 

"My friends," I said, gaspingly, "this is my first ap- 
pearance in your country, and I am but just convalescent ; 
my head is a little weak. Will you kindly bear with me a 
moment while the janitor gets me a glass of water ? '^ 

A hearty burst of applause took the sting from my mor- 
tification. A bald old gentleman in the front row gravely 
rose and said, "Let me send for a drop of brandy for our 
young guest." They waited patientlj'- and kindly till my 
faintness passed away, and when I rose, a genuine English 
cheer shook the place. 

I often hear it again when, here in my own country, I 
would speak bitterly of Englishmen, and it softens the 
harshness of my condemnation. 

But I now addressed myself feverishly to my task, and 
my disgrace made me vehement and combative. I glared 
upon the individual in the monkey-jacket as if he had been 
Mr. Jefferson Davis himself, and read him a scathing indict- 
ment. The man in the monkey-jacket was not to be scathed. 
He retorted more frequently than before ; he was guilty of 
the most hardy contempt of court. He was determined not 
to agree with me, and said so. 

" Sir," I exclaimed at last, " pray reserve your remarks 
till the end of the lecture, and you shall have the plat- 
form." 

" I shall be quite willing, I am sure," said the man in the 
monkey-jacket with imperturbable effrontery. 

Then, as I continued, the contest grew interesting ; ex- 
plosions of " No, no," were interrupted with volleys of "Ay, 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 283 

ay/^ from my adherents. Hipp, who had squared accounts, 
made all the applause in his power, standing in the main 
threshold, and the little auditory became a ringing arena, 
where we fought without flinching, standing foot to foot 
and drawing fire for fire. The man in the monkey-jacket 
broke his word : silence was not his forte ; he hurled de- 
nials and counter-charges vociferously ; he was full of gall 
and bitterness, and when I closed the last page and 
resumed my chair, he sprang from his place to claim the 
platform. 

'' Stop,'^ cried Hipp, in his hard nasal tone, striding for- 
ward ; ''you have interrupted the lecturer after giving 
your parole ; we recall our promise, as you have not stood 
by yours. Janitor, put out the lights ! '^ 

The bald old gentleman quietly rose. '' In England,'^ he 
said, ''we give everybody fair play ; tokens of assent and 
dissent are commonly made in all our public meetings ; let 
us have a hearing for our townsman. ^^ 

" Certainly,'' I replied, giving him my hand at the top of 
the stairs ; " nothing would afford me more pleasure.'' 

The man in the monkey-jacket then made a sweeping 
speech, full of loose charges against the Americans, and 
expressive of sympathy with the Rebellion ; but, at the fin- 
ishing, he proposed, as the sentiment of the meeting, a 
vote of thanks to me, which was amended by another to in- 
clude liimself. Many of the people shook hands with me 
at the door, and the bald old gentleman led me to his wife 
and daughter, whose benignities were almost parental. 

" Poor young man I " said the old lady ; " a must take 
care of 'is 'ealth ; will a come hoom wi' Tummas and me 
and drink a bit o' tea ? " 

I strolled about the place for twenty-four hours on good 
terms with many townsmen, while Hipp, full of pluck and 
business, was posting me against all the dead walls of a 
farther village. Again and again I sketched the war-epi- 
sodes I had followed, gaining fluency and confidence as by 



284 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C031BATANT. 

degrees my itinerant profession lost its novelty, but we as 
steadily lost money. The houses were invariably bad ; we 
had the same fiery discussions every evening, but the same 
meagre receipts, and in every market town of northwestern 
Lancashire we buried a portion of our little capital, till once, 
after talking myself hoarse to a respectable audience of 
empty benches, Hipp and I looked blankly into each other's 
faces and silently put our last gold pieces upon the table. 
We were three thousand miles from home, and the pos- 
sessors of ten sovereigns apiece. I reached out my hand 
with a pale smile : — 

" Old fellow," I said, " let us comfort ourselves by the 
assurance that we have deserved success. The time has 
come to say good by.'^ 

'* As you will, '^ said Hipp: ''\t is all the fault of this 
pig-headed nation. Now I dare say if we had brought a 
panorama of the war along, it would have been a stunning 
success ; but standing upon high literary and forensic 
ground, of course they can't appreciate us. Confound 
'em!" 

I think that Hipp has since had but two notions, — the 
exhibition of that panorama, or, in the event of its failure, 
a declaration of war against the British people. He fol- 
lowed me to Liverpool, and bade me adieu at Birkenhead, I 
going Londonward with scarcely enough money to pay my 
passage, and he to start next day for Belfast, to lecture 
upon his own hook, or, failing (as he afterward did), to re- 
cross the Atlantic in the steerage of a ship. 

My feelings, as the train bore me steadily through the 
Welsh border, by the clustering smoke-stacks of Birming- 
ham, by the castled tower of Warwick, and along the head 
v/aters of the Thames and Avon, were not of the most en- 
thusiastic description. I had no money and no friends ; I 
had sent to America for a remittance, but in the interval of 
six weeks required for a reply, must eat and drink and 
lodge, and London was wide and pitiless, even if I dared 
stoop to beg assistance. 



CA^IPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 285 

Let no young man be tempted to put the sea between his 
home and himself, how seductive soever be the experiences 
of book-makers and poetic pedestrians. One hour's con- 
templation of poverty in foreign lands will line the boy's 
face with the wrinkles of years, and burn into his soul that 
withering dependency which will rankle long after his pri- 
vations are forgotten. 

In truth, my circumstances were so awkward that my 
very desperation kept me calm. I had a formal letter to 
one English publisher, but not any friendly line whatever to 
anybody ; and as the possibilities of sickness, debt, ene- 
mies, came to mind, I felt that I was no longer the hero of 
a romance, but face to face with a hard, practical, terrible 
reality. It was night when I landed at the Paddington 
Station, and taking an omnibus for Charing Cross, watched 
the long lines of lamps on Oxford Street, and the glitter of 
the Haymarket theatres, and at last the hard plash of 
the fountains in Trafalgar Square, with the stony statues 
grouped so rigidly about the column to Nelson. 

I walked down Strand with my carpet-bag in my hands, 
through Fleet Street and under Temple Bar, till, weary at 
last from sheer exercise, I dropped into a little ale-house 
under a great, grinning lantern, which said, in the crisp tone 
of patronage, the one word, ''beds.^^ They put me under 
the tiles, witlr the chimney-stacks for my neighbors, and I 
lay awake all night meditating expedients for the morrow : 
so far from regret or foreboding, I longed for the daylight 
to come that I might commence my task, confident that I 
could not fail where so many had succeeded. They were, 
indeed, inspirations which looked in upon me at the dawn. 
The dome of St. Paul's guarding Paternoster Kow, with 
Milton's school in the background, and hard by the Flixy- 
er's Court, where, in lieu of Shakespeare's company,, the 
American presses oj^the Times shook the kingdom and the 
continent. I thought of Johnson, as I passed Bolt Alley, 
of Chatterton at Shoe Lane, of Goldsmith as I put my foot 
upon his grave under the eaves of the Temple. 



286 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATx\NT. 

The public has nothing to do with the sacrifices by which 
my private embarrassment received temporary relief. 
Though half the race of authors had been in similar straits, 
I would not, for all their success, undergo again such self- 
humiliation. It is enough to say that I obtained lodgings 
in Islington, close to the home of Charles Lamb, and near 
Irving's Canterbury tower; and that between writing arti- 
cles on the American war, and strategic efforts to pay my 
board, two weeks of feverish loneliness drifted away. 

I made but one friend ; a young Englishman of radical 
proclivities, who had passed some years in America among 
books and newspapers, and was now editing the foreign 
column of the Illustrated London News. He was a brave, 
needy fellow, full of heart, but burdened with a wife and 
children, and too honestly impolitic to gain money with his 
fine abilities by writing down his own unpopular sentiments. 
lie helped me with advice and otherwise. 

'' If you mean to work for the journals, '^ he said, " I fear 
you will be disappointed. I have tried six years to get 
upon some daily London paper. The editorial positions are 
always filled ; you know too little of the geography and so- 
ciety of the town to be a reporter, and such miscellaneous 
recollections of the war as you possess will not be available 
for a mere newspaper. But the magazines are always 
ready to purchase, if you can get access to them. In that 
quarter you might do well.'^ 

I found that the serials to which my friend recommended 
me shared his own advanced sentiments, but were unfortu- 
nately without money. So I made my way to the counter 
of .the Messrs. Chambers, and left for its junior partner an 
introductory note. The reply was to this efiect'. I violate 
no confidence, I think, in reproducing it : — 

" Sir, — I shall be glad to see any friend of , and may be 

found," etc., etc. " I fear that articles upon the American war, written 
by an American, will not, however, be acceptable in this journal, as the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 287 

public here take a widely different view of the contest from tliat enter- 
tained in your own country, and the feeling of horror is deepening 
fast." 

Undeterred by this frank avowal, I waited upon the pub- 
lisher at the appointed time, — a fine, athletic, white-haired 
Scotchman, whose name is known where that of greater 
authors cannot reach, and who has written with his own 
hand as much as Dumas pere. He met me with warm 
cordiality, rare to Englishmen, and when I said — 

'' Sir, I do not wish the use of your paper to circulate my 
opinions, — only my experiences,^^ he took me at once to 
his editor, and gave me a personal introduction. Fortu- 
nately I had brought with me a paper which I submitted on 
the spot ; it was entitled, '' Literature of the American 
War,'' collated from such campaign ballads as I could 
remember, eked out with my own, and strung together with 
explanatory and critical paragraphs. The third day follow- 
ing, I received this announcement in shockingly bad hand- 
writing : — 

"D'rS'r, 

" Y'r article will suit us. 

"Theed. C.J." 

For every word in this communication, I afterward ob- 
tained a guinea. The money not being due till after the 
appearance of the article, I anticipated it with various 
sketches, stories, etc., all of which were largely fanciful or 
descriptive, and contained no paragraph which I wish to 
recall. In other directions, I' was less successftd. Of two 
daily journals to which I offered my services, one declined 
to answer my letter, and the other demanded a quarto of 
credentials. 

So I lived a fugitive existence, a j^ractical illustration of 
Irving's " Poor Devil Author,'' looking as often into pastry- 
shop windows, testing all manner of cheap Pickwickian 
veal-pies, breakfasting upon a chop, and supping upon a 



288 CAMrATGNS OF A KOI^-COMBATANT. 

herring in my suburban residence, but keeping up pluck and 
claque so deceptively, that nobody in the place suspected me 
of poverty. 

I went for some American inventors, to a rifle ground, 
and explained to the Lords of the Admiralty the merits of a 
new projectile ; wrote letters to all the Continental sover- 
eigns for an itinerant and independent embassador, and was 
at last so poor that my only writing papers were a druggist's 
waste bill-heads. An article with no other '' backing'^ than 
this was fortunate enough to stray into the CoyniMll Maga- 
zine. I found that its proprietor kept a banking-house 
in Pall Mall, and doubtful of my welcome on Cornhill, ven- 
tured one day in my unique American costume, — slouched 
hat, wide garments, and squared-toed boots, — to send to 
him directly my card. He probably thought from its face 
that a relative of Mr. Mason's was about to open an exten- 
sive account with him. As it was, once admitted to his 
presence, he could not escape me. The manuscript lay in 
his hands before he fully comprehended my purpose. He 
was a fine specimen of the English publisher, — robust, 
ruddy, good-naturedly acute, — and as he said with a smile 
that he would waive routine and take charge of my copy, I 
knew that the sam.e hands had fastened upon the crude 
pages of Jane Eyre, and the best labors of Hazlitt, Euskin, 
Leigh Hunt, and Thackeray. 

Two more weary weeks elapsed ; I found it pleasant to 
work, but very trying to wait. At the end my courage 
very nearly failed. I reached the era of self-accusation ; to 
make myself forget myself I took long, ardent marches into 
the open country ; followed the authors I had worshipped 
through the localities the}'' had made reverend ; lost myself 
in dreaminesses, — those precursors of death in the snow, — 
and wished myself back in the ranks of the North, to go 
down in the frenzy, rather than thus dra'g out a life of civil 
indigence, robbing at once my brainsr and my stomach. 

One morning, as I sat in my little Islington parlor, wish- 



CAMPAIGISS OF A JS'OX-COMBATANT. 289 

ing that the chop I had just eaten had gone farther, and 
takmg a melancholy inventory of the threadbare carpet and 
rheumatic chairs, the door-knocker fell ; there were steps in 
the hall ; my name was mentioned. 

A tall young gentleman approached me with a letter : I 
received him with a strange nervousness ; was there any 
crime in my record, I asked fitfully, for which I had been 
traced to this obscure suburb for condign arrest and decapi- 
tation ? Ha I ha I it was my heart, not my lips, that 
laughed. ' I could have cried out like Enoch Arden in his 
dying apostrophe : — 

"A sail! a sail! 
I am saved ! " 

for the note, in the publisher's own handwriting, said this, 
and more : — 

"Deak Sir, — I shall be glad to send you fifteen guineas hnmedi- 
ately, in return for your article on General Pope's Campaign, if the 
price will suit you." 

But I suppressed my enthusiasm. I spoke patronizingly 
to the young gentleman. Dr. Johnson, at the brewer's 
vendue, could not have been more learnedly sonorous. 

^' You may say in return, sir, that the sum named will re- 
munerate me.'' 

At the same time the instinct was intense to seize the 
youth by the throat, and tell him that if the remittance was 
delayed beyond the morning, I would have his heart's- 
blood ! I should have liked to thrust him into the coal- 
hole as a hostage for its prompt arrival, or send one of his 
ears to the publishing house with a warning, after the man- 
ner of the Neapolitan brigands. 

That afternoon I walked all the way to Edmonton, over 
John Gilpin's route, and boldly invested two-pence in beer 
at the time-honored Bell Inn. I disdained to ride back upon 
25 



290 CAMPAIGNS OF A KON-COMBATANT. 

the omnibus for the sum of threepence, but returned on 
foot the entire eight miles, and thought it only a league. 
Next day my check came duly to hand, — a very formidable 
check, with two pen-marks drawn across its face. I carried 
it to Threadneedle Street by the unfrequented routes, to 
avoid having my pockets picked, and presented it to the 
cashier, wondering if he knew me to be a foreign gentleman 
who had written for the Gornliill Magazine. The cashier 
looked rather contemptuous, I thought, being evidently a 
soulless character with no literary afSnities. 

" Sir," he said, curtly, " this check is crossed." 

''Sir!" 

" We can't cash the check ; it is crossed." 

" What do you mean by crossed ? " 

"Just present it where you got it, and you will find 
out." 

The cashier regarded me as if I had oftered a ticket of 
leave rather than an order for the considerable amount of 
seventy-five dollars. I left that banking-house a broken 
man, and stopped with a long, long face at a broker's to ask 
for an explanation. 

" Yesh, yesh," said the little man, whose German silver 
spectacles sat upon a bulbously Oriental nose ] " ze monish 
ish never paid on a crossed shequc. If one hash a bank-ac- 
count, you know, zat ish different. Ze gentleman who gif 
you dis shequc had no bishness to crosh it if you have no 
banker." 

I was too vain to go back to Cornhill and confess that I 
had neither purse nor purser ; so I satisfied the broker that 
the affair was correct, and he cashed the bill for five shil- 
lings. 

That was the end of my necessities ; money came from 
home, from this and that serial ; my published articles were 
favorably noticed, and opened the market to me. What- 
ever I penned found sale ; and some correspondence that I 
had leisure to fulfil for America brought me steady re- 
ceipts. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 291 

Had I been prudent with my means, and prompt to ad- 
vantage myself of opportunities, I might have obtained ac- 
cess to the best literary society, and sold my compositions 
for correspondingly higher prices. Social standing in Eng- 
lish literature is of equal consequence with genius. The 
poor Irish governess cannot find a publisher, but Lady Mor- 
gan takes both critics and readers by storm. A duchesses 
name on the title-page protects the fool in the letter-press ; 
irreverent republicanism is not yet so great a respecter of 
persons. I was often invited out to dinner, and went to 
the expense of a dress-coat and kids, without which one 
passes the genteel British portal at his peril ; but found 
that both the expense and the stateliness of '' society '' 
were onerous. In this department I had no perseverance ; 
but when, one evening, I sat with the author of ''Vanity 
Fair,'' in the concert rooms at Covent Garden, as Colonel 
NewcomxC and Clive had done before me, and took my beer 
and mutton with those kindly eyes measuring me through 
their spectacles, I felt that such grand companionship lifted 
me from the errantry of my career into the dignity of a re- 
nowned art. 

I moved my lodgings, after three months, to a pleasant 
square of the West End, where I had for associates, among 
others, several American artists. Strange men were they 
to be so far from home ; but I have since found, that the 
poorer one is the farther he travels, and the majority of 
these were quite destitute. Two of them only had perma- 
nent employment ; a few, now and then, sold a design to a 
magazine ; the mass went out sketching to kill time, and 
trusted to Providence for dinner. But they were good fel- 
lows for the most part, kindly to one another, and meeting 
in their lodgings, where their tenure was uncertain, to score 
Millais, or praise Rosetti, or overwhelm Frith. 

My own life meantime passed smoothly. I had no rivals 
of my own nationality ; though one expatriated person, 
whose name I have not heard, was writing a series of 



292 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

prejudiced articles fov Frascr, which he signed "A White 
Republican. '^ I thought him a very dirty white. One or 
two English travellers at the same time were making 
amusingly stupid notices of America in some of the second- 
rate monthlies ; and Maxwell, a bustling Irishman, who 
owns Temple Bar, the Saint James, and Sixpenny Magazine, 
and some half dozen other serials, was employing a man to 
invent all varieties of rubbish upon a country which he had 
never beheld nor comprehended. 

After a few months the passages of the war with which I 
was cognizant lost their interest by reason of later occur- 
rences. I found myself, so to speak, wedged out of the 
market by new literary importations. The enforcement of 
the draft brought to Europe man}^ naturalized countrymen 
of mine, whose dislike of America was not lessened by their 
unceremonious mode of departure from it ; and it is to 
these, the mass of whom are familiarly known in the jour- 
nals of this country, that we owe the most insidious, because 
the best informed, detraction of us. Macmillan^s Magazine 
did us sterling service through the papers of Edward Dicey, 
the best literary feuilletonist in England ; and Professor 
Newman, J. Stuart Mill, and others, gave us the limited 
influence of the Westminster Review. The Cornliill was 
neutral ; Chambers^ s respectfully inimical ; Bentley and Col- 
burn antagonistically flat ; Maxwell's tri-visaged publica- 
tions grinningly abusive ; Good Words had neither good nor 
bad words for us ; Once a Week and All the Year Bound 
gave us a shot now and then. Blackwood and Fraser dis- 
liked our form of Government, and all its manifestations. 
The rest of the reviews, as far as I could see, pitied and 
berated us pompously. It was more than once suggested 
to me to write an experimental paper upon the failure of 
republicanism ; but I knew only one American — a New 
York correspondent — who lent himself to a systematic 
abuse of the Government which permitted him to reside in 
it. He obtained a newsboy's fame, and, I suspect, earned 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 293 

considerable. He is dead : let any who love him shorten 
his biography by three years. 

However, I at last concluded a book, — if I may so call 
what never resulted in a volume, — at which, from the first, 
I had been pegging away. I called it " The War Corre- 
spondent, '^ and made it the literal record of my adventures 
in the saddle. When some six hundred MS. pages were 
done I sent it to a publisher ; he politely sent it back. I 
forwarded it to a rival house ; in this respect only both 
houses were agreed. Having some dim recollection of the 
early trials of authors 1 perseveringly gave that copy the 
freedom of the city ; the verdict upon it was marvellously 
identical, but the manner of declension was always sooth- 
ing. They separately advised me not to be content with 
one refusal, but to try some other house, though I came at 
last to think, by the regularity of its transit to and fro, that 
one house only had been its recipient from the first. 

At last, assured of its positive failure, I took what seemed 
to be the most philosophic course, — neither tossing it into 
the Thames, after the fashion of a famous novelist, nor litter- 
ing my floor with its fragments, and dying amidst them like 
a cMffonnier in his den : I cut the best paragraphs out of it, 
strung them together, and published it by separate articles 
in the serials. My name failed to be added to the British 
Museum Catalogue ; but that circumstance is, at the pres- 
ent time, a matter of no regret whatever. 

When done with the war I took to story-writing, using 
many half-forgotten incidents of American police-reporting, 
of border warfare, of the development of civilization among 
the pioneers, of thraldom in the South, and the gold search 
on the Pacific. The majority of these travelled across the 
water, and were republished. And when America, in the 
garb of either fact or fiction, lost novelty, I entered the wide 
field of miscellaneous literature among a thousand com- 
petitors. 

An author's ticket to the British Museum Reading-room 



294 CA3IPAIGNS OF A NOA^-COMBATAT\'T. 

put the whole world so close around me that I could touch 
it everywhere. I never entered the noble rotunda of that 
vast collection without an emotion of littleness and awe. 
Lit only from the roof, it reminded me of the Roman 
Pantheon ; and truly all the gods whom I had worshipped 
sat, not in statue, but in substance, along its radiating 
tables, or trod its noiseless floors. Half the literature of 
our language flows from thence. One may see at a glance 
grave naturalists knee-deep in ichthyological tomes, or buzz- 
ing over entomology ; pale zealots copying Arabic charac- 
ters, with the end to rebuild Bethlehem or the ruins of 
Mecca ; biographers gloating over some rare original letter ; 
periodical writers filching from two centuries ago for their 
next '' new'^ article. The Marquis of Lansdowne is dead ; 
you may see the Times reporter yonder running down the 
events of his career. Poland is in arms again, and the 
clever compiler farther on means to make twenty pounds 
out of it by summing up her past risings and ruins. The 
bruisers King and Mace fought yesterday, and the plodding 
person close by from BelVs Life is gleaning their antecedents. 
Half the literati of our age do but like these bind the present 
to the past. A great library diminishes the number of think- 
ers ; the grand fountains of philosophy and science ran 
before types were so facile or letters became a trade. 

The novelty of this life soon wore away, and I found my- 
self the creature of no romance, but plodding along a prosy 
road with very practical people. 

I carried my MSS. into Paternoster Row like anybody's 
book-keeper, and accused the world of no particular ingrat- 
itude that it could not read my name with my articles, and 
that it gave itself no concern to discover me. Yet there 
was a private pleasure in the congeniality of my labor, and 
in the consciousness that I could float upon my quill even 
in this vast London sea. Once or twice my articles went 
across the Channel and returned in for,eign dress. I wonder 
if I shall ever again feel the thrill of that first recognition of 



CAMrAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 295 

my offspring- coming- to my knee with their strange French 
prattle. 

I was not uniformly successful, but, if rejected, my MSS. 
were courteously returned, with a note from the editor. As 
a sample I give the following. The original is a litho- 
graphed fac-similo of the handwriting of Mr. Dickens, 
printed in blue ink, the date and the title of the manuscript 
being in another handwriting. 

OFFICE OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND." 

A WEEKLY JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. 

No. 20 Wellington Street, Strand, London, W. C. 

January 27, 18C3. 
Mr. dairies Dickens begs to thank the writer of the paper entitled 
" A Battle Sunday " for having done him the favor to offer it as a con- 
tribution to these pages. He much regrets, hov/ever, that it is not 
suited to the requirements of "All the Year Round." 

The manuscript will be returned, under cover, if applied for as 
above. 

The prices of miscellaneous articles in London are remu- 
nerative. Twenty-four shillings a magazine page is the 
common valuation : but specially interesting papers rate 
higher. Literature as a profession, in England, is more cer- 
tain and more progressive than with us. It is not debased 
with the heavy leaven of journalism. Among the many 
serial publications of London, ability, tact, and industry 
should alwaj'-s find a liberal market. There is less of the 
vagrancy of letters, — Bohemianism, Mohicanism, or what 
not, — in London than in either New York or Paris. 

I think we have the cleverer fugitive writers in America, 
but those of England seemed to me to have more self-respect 
and conscientiousness. The soul of the scribe need never 
be in pledge if there are many masters. 

While a good writer in any department can find work 
across the water, I would advise no one to go abroad with 
this assurance solely. My success — if so that can be 



296 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOK-COMBATANT. 

called which yielded me life, not profit — was circumstan- 
tial, and cannot be repeated. I should be loth to try it 
again upon purely literary merits. 

After nine months of experiment I bade the insular me- 
tropolis adieu, and returned no more. The Continent was 
close and beckoning ; I heard the confusion of her tongues, 
and saw the shafts of her Gothic Babels probing the clouds, 
and for another year I roamed among her cities, as ardent 
and errant as when I went afield on my pony to win the 
spurs of a War Correspondent. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

SPURS IN THE PICTURE GALLERIES. 

Florence, city of my delight ! how do I thrill at the recol- 
lection of the asylum afforded me by thee in the Via Parione. 
The room was tiled, and cool, and high, and its single win- 
dow looked out upon a real palace, where the family of 
Corsini, presided over by a porter in cocked hat and an exu- 
berance of gold lace, gave me frequent glimpses of gauze 
dresses and glorious eyes, whose owners sometimes came 
to the casement to watch the poor little foreigner, writing 
so industriously. 

Every young traveller has two or three subjects of unrest. 
Mine were girls and art. The copyists in the galleries were 
more beautiful studies to me than the paintings. The next 
time I go to Europe, I shall take enough money along to 
give all the pretty ones an order ; this will be an introduc- 
tion, and I shall know how they live, and how much money 
they make, and what passions have heaved their beautiful 
bosoms, to make their slow, quiet lives forever haunted and 
longing. 

Love, love ! There are only two grand, unsatiated pas- 
sions, which keep us forever in freshness and fever, — love 
and art. 

In Italy I breathed the purest atmosphere ; all the world 
was a landscape picture ; all the skies were spilling blue- 
ness and crimson upon the mountains ; all the faces were 
Madonnas ; all the perspectives were storied architecture. 

(297) 



298 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

Westward the star of Empire takes its way, but that of art 
shines steadily in the East. Thither look our American 
young men, no matter at which of its altars they make their 
devotions, — painting, sculpture, or architecture. And I, 
who had known some fondness for the pencil till lured into 
the wider, wilder field of letters, felt almost an artist's joy 
when I stood in the presence of those solemn masters whose 
works are inspired and imperishable, like religion. 

Having passed the first thrill and disappointment, — for 
pure art speaks only to the pure by intuition or initiation, 
and I was yet a novice, — my old newspaper curiosity re- 
vived to learn of the successful living rather than of the 
grand dead. 

Correspondents, like poets, are born, not made : the ven- 
erable associations around me — monuments, cloisters, pal- 
aces, the homes and graves of great men whom I revered, 
the aisles where every canvas bore a spell name — could 
- not wean me from that old, reportorial habit of asking ques- 
tions, peeping into private nooks, and making notes upon 
contemporary things, just as I had done for three years, in 
cities, on routes, on battle-fields. And as the old world 
seemed to me only a great art museum, I longed to look be- 
hind the tapestry at the Ghobelin weavers, pulling the beau- 
tiful threads. 

*' Where dwell these gay and happy students, who quit 
our hard, bright skies, and land of angularities, to inhale 
the dews of these sedative mosses, and, by attrition with 
masterpieces, glean something of the spirit of the mas- 
ters ? '' 

Straightway the faery realm opened to me, and two 
months of Italian rambling were spent in association with 
the folk I esteemed only less than my own exemplars. 

Art, in all ages, is the flowery way. No pursuit gives so 
great joy in the achieving, none achieved yields higher 
meed of competence, contentment, and repute. Its ambi- 
tion is more genial and subdued than that of literature, its 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 299 

rivalry more courteous and exalting ; its daily life should be 
pastoral and domestic, free from those feverish mutations 
and adventures which cross the incipient author, and it is 
forever surrounded by bright and beautiful objects which 
linger too long upon the eye to stir the mind to more than 
emulation. 

Is it harsh to say that artists have been too well re- 
warded, and thinkers and writers too ill ? Vasari dines at 
the ducal table, while Galileo's pension is the rack ; the 
mob which carries Cimabue's canvas in triumph, drives 
Dante into exile ; Rubens is a king's ambassador, and Gro- 
tius is sent to jail ; to Reynolds's levees, poor, bankrupt 
Goldsmith steals like an unwelcome guest, and Apelles's 
gold is paid to him in measures, while Homer, singing im- 
mortal lines, goes blind and begging. 

Art students take rank in Italy among the best of trav- 
ellers, but Bohemianism in art is at one's peril. There are 
many wasted lives among the clever fellows who go abroad 
ostensibly for study. I recall Jimman, who was an expert 
with the pencil, and who colored with excellent discrimina- 
tion. He went to Dusseldorf at first, and became known 
to Leutze, who praised his sketches. He began to asso- 
ciate at once with students and tipplers, and dissipated less 
by drinking than by talking. I have a theory that more 
men are lost to themselves and the age by a love of " gab- 
bing " than by drinking. It is not hard to eschew cognac 
and claret, but there is no cure for '' buzzing." There is a 
drunkenness of talk which takes possession of one, and 
Jimman would have had the delirium tremens in a week, 
with nobody to listen to him. To my mind the Trappiste 
takes the severest of monastic vows. 

Jimman used to rise in the morning betimes, full of inflex- 
ible resolution. Having stretched his canvas, and carefully 
prepared his pigments, he went to breakfast, pondering 
great achievements. Here he fell in with a lot of Germans, 
— the most incurable race of gossipers in the world, — and 



300 CAMPAIG>7S OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 

while they discussed, in a learned way, every subject under 
the sun, the meal extended into the afternoon, and Jimman 
concluded that it was then too late to undertake anything. 
In this way his arf5bition burnt away, his money was squan- 
dered, he lost facility of manipulation, and came back to 
Paris at the age of twenty-eight, to pursue the same list- 
less, garrulous existence ; debts and grisettes, buzzing and 
brandy, the utterance of resolves which expired in the ut- 
terance, and Jimman finally became, perforce, a cdhimon 
apprentice to a moulder, that he might not entirely starve. 

I saw him, for the last time, in the Louvre, looking at 
Zurbaran's "Kneeling Monk.'' 

" Ah, Townsend," he said, *' I might have done some- 
thing like that. All my zeal is gone.'' 

And he began to chat in the same loose, familiar way. 
Dumbness and deafness would have been endowments 
rather than deprivations for him. 

I had rooms in Florence with Gypsum and Stagg. The 
former was a young, industrious fellow, of German descent, 
who jvorked hard, but not wisely. He spent half a year in 
copying a face by Paul Veronese, and the other half in 
sketching an old convent yard. But he did not visit, and 
an artist, to get orders and take rank, must be seen as well 
as be earnest. He need not be hail-fellow, but should keep 
well in the circle of respectable travellers ; for these are to 
be his patrons, if he pleases them. G^^psum was over- 
modest and too conscientious ; he had only a trifle of money, 
and was careless of his attire. So he disregarded society, 
and society forgot him. Therefore, at dawn, he betook him- 
self to the old convent-yard, and stood at his easel bravely, 
never so unhappy as when one of the church's innumerable 
holy days arrived, for then he was forbidden to work upon 
the convent premises. With all his conscientiousness he 
received no orders ; while Stagg, who was not more clever, 
proportioned to his longer experience, was befriended on 
every hand, because he went to the American chapel 
regularly and wore a dress-coat at the sociables. 



CAMrAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 301 

Stagg used the old studio of Buchanan Read, just off the 
Via Seragli. 

I stumbled upon him one morning, and saw more than 1 
anticipated. 

A young, plump girl, without so much as a fig-leaf upon 
her, was posing before his easel, so motionless that she 
scarcely winked, one hand extended and clasping her 
loosened tresses, and bending upon one white and dimpled 
knee. 

She had the large dark eyes of the professional modello, 
and a bosom as ripe as Titian's Venus. Her feet were 
small, and her hands very white and beautiful. But of me 
she took no more notice than if I had been a bird alighting 
upon the window, or a mouse peeping at her from the edge 
of his knot-hole. 

Old Stagg, who was commonly grave as a clergyman, 
now and then left his easel to alter her position, and when 
he was done, she gathered up her clothes, which had lain in 
a heap on the floor, and took her few silver pieces with a 
" Mille grazie, SignoreT^ and went home to take dinner 
with her little brothers. 

A studio in Florence costs onl}' fifteen or twenty francs a 
month, — seldom so much. There are a series of excellent 
ones in the same Via Seragli, in a very large dismantled 
convent. There is a well in the centre of its great court- 
yard, and innumerable ropes lead from it to the various high 
windows of the building, on which buckets of water are for- 
ever ascending. All this of which I speak refers to a year 
ago, when Florence was not a capital ; doubtless, studios 
command more at present. 

The models at Florence were to me strange personages. 
There was a drawing-school which I sometimes attended, 
where one old w^oman kept three daughters, aged respec- 
tively twenty, seventeen, and thirteen years. They lived 
pretty much as they were born, and while they posed upon 
a high platform, the old woman took her seat near the door 
20 



302 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

and looked on with grim satisfaction. She was very care- 
ful of their moral habits, but the second one Bhe lost by an 
excess of greed. She resolved to make them useful by day, 
as well as by night, and put them to work at the studios of 
individual artists. But as no one artist wanted three mod- 
els, the girls had to separate, and, out of the mother's vigi- 
lance, the second one, Orsolo, went to the atelier of a 
wicked and handsome fellow, and met with the usual ro- 
mance of her class. 

The oldest girl, Luigia, married a man-model, and their 
nuptials must have been of a most prosaic character. 

Among the many men who thus stood for the artists, was 
one old fellow, tall, and bearded, and massively character- 
ized, who used to remain motionless for hours, until he 
seemed to be dead. He had been a model in every stage of 
life, from childhood to the grave, and represented every 
subject from Garibaldi to Moses. 

The walks in and around Florence occupied all my Sab- 
baths. Stagg and I used to stroll up to Fiesole, by the 
villa where Boccaccio's party of story-tellers met, and look 
up old pictures in the village church ; v/e measured the pro- 
portions of the chapel on the hill of Saint Miniato, and he 
endeavored in vain to imitate the hue of the light as it fell 
through the veined marble of Serravezza ; we spent con- 
templative afternoons in the house of Michael Angelo, and 
went up to Vallambrosa, at the risk of our necks, to look at 
a Giotto no bigger than a tea-plate. In Florence there is 
enough out-of-door statuary to make one of the finest gal- 
leries in the world. The majesty of Donatello's " Saint 
George " arises before me when I would conceive of any 
noble humanity, and the sweep of Orgagna's great arches 
give me an idea of vastness like the sea ; in the Pitti palace 
only giants should abide ; the Campanile goes up to heaven 
as beautiful as Jacob's ladder, and in the perpetual twi- 
light of the Duomo I was not of half the stature I believed 
when roaming under the loftier sky. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 303 

I saw a jail in Florence, and it troubled me ; who in that 
beautiful city could do a crime ? How should old ag"e, or 
bad passions, or sickness, or shame, exist in that limpid at- 
mosphere, in the shadow of such architecture, in the pres- 
ence of those pictures ? 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A COERESPONDENT ONCE MOKE. 

Again on the way to Washington ! I have made the trip 
more than sixty times. I saw the Gunpowder Bridge in 
flames when Baltimore was in arms and the Capital cut off 
from the North. I saw from Perryville the State flag of 
Maryland waving at Havre de Grace across the Susque- 
hanna. I saw at the Washington Navy Yard the blackened 
body of Ellsworth, manipulated by the surgeons. I moved 
through the city with McClellan's onward army toward the 
transports which were to carry it to the Peninsula. The 
awful tidings of the seven days' retreat came first through 
the Capital in my haversack, and before Stonewall Jackson 
fell upon the flank of Pope, I crossed the Long Bridge with 
the story of the disaster of Cedar Mountain. In like man- 
ner the crowning glory of Five Forks made me its earliest 
emissary, and the murder of the President brought me hot 
from Richmond to participate in the pursuit of Booth and 
chronicle his midnight expiation. 

Again am I on the way to the city of centralization, to 
paint by electricity the closing scenes of the conspirators, 
and, as I pass the Pennsylvania line, the recollection of 
those frequent pilgrimages — pray God this be the last ! — 
comes upon me like the sequences of delirium. 

As I look abroad upon the thrifty fields and the rich glebe 
of the ploughman, I wonder if the revolutions of peace are 
not as sweeping and sudden as those of war. He who 

(304) 



CAI\TPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 305 

wrote the certain downfall of this Nation, did not keep his 
eye upon the steadily ascending dome of the capitol, nor 
remark, during the thunders of Gettysburg, the as energetic 
stroke of the pile-drivers upon the piers of the great Sus- 
quehanna bridge. We built while we desolated. No fatal- 
ist convert to Mohammed had so sure faith in the eternity 
of his institutions. More masonry has been laid along the 
border during the war than in any five previous years. We 
have finished the Treasury, raised the bronze gates on the 
Capitol, double-railed all the roads between New York and 
the Potomac, and gone on as if architecture were imperish- 
able, wiiile thrice the Rebels swept down toward the 
Relay. 

And we have done one strategic thing, which, I think, 
will compare with th^ passing of Vicksburg or the raid of 
Sherman ; we have turned Philadelphia. 

This modern Pompeii used to be the stumbling-block on 
the great highway. It was to the direct AVashington route 
what Hell-gate was to the Sound Channel. We were for- 
bidden the right of way through it, on the ground that by 
retarding travel Philadelphia would gain trade, and had to 
cross the Delaware on a scow, or lay up in some inn over 
iiight. New Jerseymen, I hear, pray every morning for 
their daily stranger ; Philadelphia has much sinned to en- 
trap its daily customer. But Maillefert — by which name 
I designate the inevitable sledge- which spares the grand 
and pulverizes the little — has built a road around the 
Quaker City. It is a very curious road, going by two hy- 
pothenuses of about fifteen miles to make a base of three or 
four, so that we lose an hour on the way to the Capital, all 
because of Philadelphia's overnight toil. 

The bridge at Perryville will be one of the staunchest 
upon our continent : the forts around Baltimore make the 
outlying landscapes scarcely recognizable to the returning 
Maryland Rebels. At last, — woe be the necessity I we 
have garrisoned our cities. The Relay House is the most 
26* 



306 CABIPAIGNS OF A NC^— COMBATANT. 

picturesque spot between the two foci of the country. 
Wandering through the woods, I see the dirty blouses of 
the remnant of "the boys" and the old abatis on the 
height looks sunburnt and rusty ; away through the gorge 
thunders the Baltimore and Ohio train, over what ruins and 
resurrections, torn up a hundred times, and as obstinately 
relaid, until all its engineers are veteran officers, and can 
stand fire both of the furnace and the musket. Everybody 
in the country is a veteran ; the contractor, who ran his 
schooner of fodder past the Rebel batteries ; the correspond- 
ent, whose lean horse slipped through the crevices of drop- 
ping shells ; the teamster, who whipped his mule out of the 
mud-hole, while his ammunition wagon behind grew hot 
with the heaviness of battle ; the old farmer, who took to 
his cellar while the fight raged in his chimneys, but ven- 
tured out between the bayonet charges to secure his fatted 
calf. 

Annapolis Junction has still the sterile guise of the cam- 
paign, where the hills are bare around the hospitals, and the 
railway taverns are whittled to skeletons. I have really 
seen whole houses, little more than shells, reduced to mea- 
greness by the pocket-knife. The name of almost every- 
body on the continent is cut somewhere in the South ;' 
Virginia has more than enough names carved over her fire- 
side altars to inscribe upon all her multitudinous graves. 

There are close to the city fine bits of landscape, where 
the fields dip gracefully into fertile basins, and rise in swells 
of tilled fields and orchard to some knoll, enthroning a por- 
ticoed home. Two years ago all these fields were quag- 
mires, where stranded wheels and the carcasses of hybrids, 
looked as if a mud-geyser had opened near by. The grass 
has spread its covering, as the birds spread their leaves 
over the poor babes in the wood, and we walk we know not 
where, noiL over what struggles, and shadows, and sor- 
rows. 

I pity the army mule, though he never asked me for s^nii- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 307 

pathy. Who ever loved a mule ? You can love a lion, and 
make him lick your hand : some people love parrots, and 
owls ; and I once knew a person who could catch black 
snakes and carry them lovingly in his bosom ; but I never 
knew a beloved mule. Yet this war has been fought and 
won by hybrids. They have pulled us out of ruts and fed 
us, and starved for us. The mule is the great quartermas- 
ter. See him and his brethren yonder in corral, — misera- 
ble veterans of no particular race, slab-sided, and capable 
of holding ink between their ribs. They mounch, and 
mounch, and wear the same stolid eye which you have seen 
under the driver's lash, and in the vaulting moment of vic- 
tory. No stunning receptions greet them, no cheers and 
banquets when Muley comes marching home ; over at 
Giesbor^o they come in crippled, die by the musket with- 
out a murmur, and are immediately boiled down and for- 
gotten, 

I was once beaten by a rival correspondent upon a prom- 
inent battle, by riding a mule with my despatches. He 
walked into a mud-puddle just half way between the field 
and the post-office, and stopped there till morning. 

Here we are, at Washington. I have been in most of 
the cities of Europe : some of them have dirty suburbs, but 
the first impression of the Capitol City is dreary in the ex- 
treme ; a number of the lost tribes have established booths 
contiguous to the terminus, wherein the filthiest people in 
the world eat the filthiest dishes ; a man's sense of cleanli- 
ness vanishes when he enters the District of Columbia. I 
have been astonished to remark how greatness loses its 
stature here. Mr. Charles Sumner is a handsome man on 
Broadway or Beacon Street, but eating dinner at Thomp- 
son's, his shoulders seem to narrow and his fine face to grow 
commonplace. 

Above the squalid wideness of ungraded streets and the 
waste of shanties propped upon poles above abysses of 
vacant lots, where two drunken soldiers are pummelling 



308 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

each other, towers the marvellous dome with its airy genius 
firmly planted above, like the ruins of Palmyra above con- 
temporary meanness. Moving up the streets, in dust and 
mud-puddle, you see shabbily ambitious churches, with 
wooden towers ; hotels, the curbs whereof are speckled with 
human blemishes, sustaining like hip-shotten caryatides the 
sandstone-wooden columns. Within there is a pandemo- 
nium of legs in the air, and an agglomeration of saliva, 
ending with an impertinent clerk and two crescents of lazy 
waiters, who shy whisks, and are ambitious to run superflu- 
ous errands, for the warrant to rob you. Of people, you see 
squads ; of residents, none. The public edifices have not 
picked their company, neither have the public functionaries. 
There is a quantity of vulgar statuary lying around, horses 
standing on their tails, and impossible Washingtons imbed- 
ded in arm-chairs ; but the noble facade of the treasury 
always suggests to me Couture's great picture of the Deca- 
dence, where, under a pure colonnade, some tipplers are 
carousing. If we are to have statues at the Capital, let us 
make them with uplifted hands, and shame upon their 
grave, contemplative faces. 

Shall we ever make Washington the representative Capi- 
tal of the country ? 

Certainly all efforts to improve the site worthy of the 
seat of gigantic legislation have hitherto failed. The sword 
and the malaria have attacked it. Every year sees the 
President driven from his Mansion by pestilential vapors, 
and the sanitary condition of the city is extraordinarily bad. 
The carcasses of slain horses at Giesboro send their efSuvia 
straight into Washington on the wind, and the " Island,'' 
or that part of the city between the river and the canal, is 
dangerous almost all the year. 

Moreover, the entire river front of the city seems to be 
untenable, except for negroes ; the Washington monument 
stands on the yielding plain in the rear of the Chief Magis- 
trate's, a stunted ruin, finding no foundation ; and much of 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 309 

the great Capital reserve near by, would be a dead weight, 
if any effort were made to dispose of it, as building lots. 
The small portion of Washington lying upon Capitol Hill, is 
the most salubrious and covetable ; but it is a lonesome 
journey by night around the Capitol grounds to the city. 
The finest residences lie north of the President's house, but 
the number of these grows apace, and the quantity of 
capital invested in private real estate, remains almost 
stationary. 

We recall but two or three citizens of Washington who 
have spent their money on the spot where they have made 
it. Corcoran was the most generous ; he erected a museum 
of art, and Government has made it a Commissary depot I 
But how few of the illustrious Senators, Chief Justices, 
Generals, etc., who draw their sustenance from the Capital, 
care a penny to decorate it ? Compare the home of Gover- 
nor Sprague on 6th Street, to his splendid mansion at 
Providence, or the Club House of the Secretary of State, 
to his place at Auburn. Washington has power, but it 
cannot attract. It is the solitary monarch, at whose feet all 
kneel, but by none beloved. Strangers repair to it, grow 
rich, and quit it with their earnings. Government works 
nobly to imitate the Palaces of the Caesars, and the public 
edifices leave our municipal structures far beneath, but these 
marble and granite piles seem to mock the littleness of in- 
dividual ambition. Two hotels have been built during the 
war, both of the caravansary class, but the city, for four 
years, has been miserably incompetent to entertain its guests, 
or to command their respect. 

Washington, to be a city, lacks three elements, — com- 
merce, representation, health ; the environs are picturesque, 
and the new forts on the hill-tops little injure the land- 
scape. 

But the question is not premature, whether Washington 
city will ever answer the purposes of a stable seat of gov- 
ernment, and reflect the enterprise, patriotism, and taste of 
the American people. 



310 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

I have sometimes thought that these huge public build- 
ings, — now inadequate to accommodate the machinery of 
the Government, — would, at some future day, be the 
nucleus of a great lijcee, and that Washington would become 
the Padua of the Republic, its University and Louvre, while 
legislation and administration, despairing of giving dignity 
to the place, would depart for a more congenial locality. 

At any rate, the old Federal theory of a sylvan seat of 
government has failed. 

For a sequestered and virtuous retreat of legislation, we 
have corruption augmented by dirt, and business stagnation 
aggravated by disease. There are virtues in the town ; but 
these must be searched for, and the vices are obvious. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



FIVE FORKS, 



I COMMENCE my account on the battle-field, but must soon 
make the long and lonely ride to Humphrey's Station, where 
I shall continue it. 

I am sitting by Sheridan's camp-fire, on the spot he has 
just signalized by the most individual and complete victory 
of the war. All his veterans are around him, stooping by 
knots over the bright fagots, to talk together, or stretched 
upon the leaves of the forest, asleep, with the stains of 
powder yet upon their faces. There are dark masses of 
horses blackened into the gray background, and ambulances 
are creaking to and fro. I hear the sobs and howls of the 
weary, and note, afar off, among the pines, moving lights 
of burying parties, which are tumbling the slain into the 
trenches. A cowed and shivering silence has succeeded 
the late burst of drums, trumpets, and cannon ; the dead 
are at rest ; the captives are quiet ; the good cause has won 
again, and I shall try to tell you how. 

Many months ago the Army of the Potomac stopped be- 
fore Petersburg, driven out of its direct course to Rich- 
mond. It tried the Dutch Gap and the powder-ship, and 
shelled and shovelled till Sherman had cut five States in 
half, and onl}'' timid financiers, sutlers, and congressional 
excursionists paid the least attention to the armies on the 
James. We had fights without much purpose at our breast- 
works, and at Hatcher's Run, but the dashing achievements 

(311) 



312 CAMPAIGNS OF A NO?s -COMBATANT. 

of Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley overtoppped all our 
dull infantry endeavors, and he shared with Sherman the 
entire applause of the country. No one knows but that 
behind these actors stood the invisible prompter, Grant ; 
yet prompters, however assiduous, never divide applauses 
with the dramatis personce ; and, therefore, when Sheridan, 
the other day, by one of those slashing adventures which 
Jiold us breathless, appeared on the Pamunkey and crossed 
the peninsula to City Point, even the armies of the Poto- 
mac and James were agitated. The personnel of the man, 
not less than his renown, affected people. A very Punch 
of soldiers, a sort of Rip Van Winkle in regimentals, it as- 
tonished folks, that with so jolly and grotesque a guise, he 
held within him energies like lightning, the bolts of which 
had splintered the fairest parts of the border. But nobody 
credited General Sheridan with higher genius than activity ; 
we expected to hear of him scouring the Carolina boundary, 
with the usual destruction of railways and mills, and there- 
fore said at once that Sheridan would cut the great South- 
side road. But in this last chapter Sheridan must take 
rank as one of the finest military men of our century. The 
battle of " Five Forks " was, perhaps, the most ingeniously 
conceived and skilfully executed that we have ever had on 
this continent. It matches in secretiveness and shrewd- 
ness the cleverest efforts of Napoleon, and shows also 
much of that soldier's broadness of intellect and capacity 
for great occasions. 

Sheridan had scarcely time to change his horses' shoes 
before he was off, and after him much of our infantry also 
moved to the left. We passed our ancient breastworks at 
Hatcher's Run, and extended our lines southwestward till 
they touched Dinwiddle Court House, thirty miles from 
City Point. The Rebels fell back with but little skirmish- 
ing, until we faced northward and reached out toward their 
idolized Southside Railway ; then they grew uneasy, and, 
as a hint of their opposition, fought us the sharp battle of 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03IBATANT. 313 

Quaker Road on Thursday. Still, we reached farther and 
farther, marvelling to find that, with his depleted army, Lee 
always overmatched us at every point of attack ; ' but on 
Friday we quitted our intrenchments on the Boydtown 
plank-road, and made a bold push for the White Oak road. 
This is one of the series of parallel public ways running 
east and west, south of the Southside, the Vaughan road 
being the first, the Boydtown plank-road the second, and 
the old Court-House road the third. It became evident to 
the Rebels that we had two direct objects in view : the sev- 
ering of their railway, and the occupation of the ''Five 
Forks. '^ The latter is a magnificent strategic point. Five 
good roads meet in the edge of a dry, high, well-watered 
forest, three of them radiating to the railway, and their 
tributaries unlocking all the country. Farther south, their 
defences had been paltry, but they fortified this empty soli- 
tude as if it had been their capital. Upon its principal 
road, the ''White Oak," aforenamed, they had a ditched 
breastwork with embrasures of logs and earth, reaching 
east and west three miles, and this was covered eastward 
and southeastward by rifle-pits, masked works, and felled 
timber ; the bridges approaching it were broken ; all the 
roads picketed, and a desperate resolve to hold to it 
averred. This point of "Five Forks'^ may be as much 
as eight miles from Dinwiddle Court House, four from the 
Southside road, and eighteen from Humphrey's, the nearest 
of our military railway stations. A crooked stream called 
Gravelly Run, which, with Hatcher's, forms Rowanty 
Creek, and goes off to feed the Chowan in North Carolina, 
rises near "Five Forks," and gives the name of Gravelly 
Run Church to a little Methodist meeting-house, built in 
the forest a mile distant. That meeting-house is a hospital 
to-night, running blood, and at "Five Forks" a victor's 
battle-flags are flying. 

The Fifth Army Corps of General Warren, has had all of 
the flank fighting of the week to do. It lost five or six 
27 



314 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

hundred men in its victory of Thursday, and on Friday 
rested along the Boydtown plank-road, at the house of one 
Butler, chiefly, which is about seven miles from Five Forks. 
On Friday morning, General Ayres took the advance with 
one of its three divisions, and marched three-quarters of a 
mile beyond the plank-road, through a woody country, 
follovN^ing the road, but crossing the ubiquitous Gravelly 
Run, till he struck the enemy in strong force a mile and a 
half below White Oak road. They lay in the edge of a 
wood, with a thick curtain of timber in their front, a battery 
of field-pieces to the right, mounted in a bastioned earth- 
work, and on the left the woods drew near, encircling a little 
farm-land and negro-buildings. General Ayres's skirmish- 
line being fired upon, did not stand, but fell back upon his 
main column, which advanced at the order. Straightway 
the enemy charged headlong, while their battery opened a 
cross fire, and their skirmishers on our left, creeping down 
through the woods, picked us off in flank. They charged 
with a whole division, making their memorable yell, and 
soon doubled up Ayres's line of battle, so that it was forced 
in tolerable disorder back upon General Crawford, who com- 
manded the next division. Crawford's men do not seem to 
have retrieved the character of their predecessors, but made 
a feint to go in, and, falling by dozens beneath the murder- 
ous fire, gave up the ground. Griffin's division, past which 
the fugitives ran, halted awhile before taking the doubtful 
way ; the whole oorps was now back to the Boydtown plank- 
road, and nothing had been done to anybody's credit par- 
ticularly. 

General Griffin rode up to General Chamberlain in this 
extremity. Chamberlain is a young and anxious officer, who 
resigned the professorship of modern languages in Bov/doin 
College to embrace a soldier's career. He had been 
wounded the day before, but was zealous to try death 
again. 

" Chamberlain," said Griffin; " can't you save the honor 
of the Fifth corps ? " 



aOiPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 3 15 

The young General formed his men at once, — they had 
tasted powder before, — the One Hundred and eighty-fifth 
New York and the One Hundred and ninety-eighth Pennsyl- 
vania. Down they went into the creek waist deep, up the 
slope and into the clearing, muskets to the left of them, 
muskets in front of them, cannon to the right of them ; but 
their pace was swift, like their resolve ; many of them were 
cut down, yet they kept ahead, and the Rebels, who seemed 
astonished at their own previous success, drew off and gave 
up the fi.eld. Almost two hours had elapsed between the 
loss and the recovery of the ground. The battle might bo 
called Dabney's Farm, or more generally the fight of Grav- 
elly Run. The brigades of Generals Bartlett and Gregory 
rendered material assistance in the ploasanter finale of the 
day. An order was soon after issued to hasten the burial 
of the dead and quit the spot, but Chamberlain petitioned 
for leave to charge the Rebel earthwork in the rear, and the 
enthusiasm of his brigade bore down General Warren^s more 
prudent doubt. In brief, Griffin's division charged the fort, 
drove the Rebels out of it, and took position on the White 
Oak road, far east of Five Forks. While Griffin's division 
must be credited with this result, it may be said that their 
luck was due as much to the time as the manner of their 
appearance ; the Rebel divisions of Pickett and Bushrod 
Johnston were, in the main, by the time Griffin came up, on 
their way westward to attack Sheridan's cavalry. Ayres 
and Crawford had charged as one to four, but the forces 
were quite equalized when Chamberlain pushed on. The 
corps probably lost tv/elve hundred men. In this action, 
the Rebels, for the first time for many weeks, exhibited all 
their traditional irresistibility and confidence. The merit 
of the affair, I am inclined to think, should be awarded to 
them ; but a terrible retribution remained for them in the 
succeeding day's decrees. 

The ill success of the earlier efforts of Sheridan, show 
conclusively the insufficiency of ever so good cavalry 



316 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

to resist well organized and resolute infantry. Concen- 
trating at Dinwiddle Court House, he proceeded to scour so 
much of the country that he almost baffled conjecture as to 
where his quarters really were. As many thousand cavalry 
as constitute his powerful force seem magnified, thus mount- 
ed and ever moving here and there, to an incredible number. 
The Court House, where he remained fittingly for a couple 
of days, is a cross-road's patch, numbering about twelve 
scattered buildings, with a delightful prospect on every 
side of sterile and monotonous pines. This is, I believe, 
the largest village in the district, though Dinwiddle stands 
fourth in population among Virginia counties. At present 
there is almost as great a population underground as the 
ancient county carried on its census. Indeed, one is per- 
plexed at every point to know whence the South draws its 
prodigious armies. Some English officers have been visiting 
Dinwiddle during the week, and one of them said, curtly : 
" Blast the country ! it isn't worth such a row, you know. 
A very good place to be exiled, to be sure, but what can 
you ever make of it ! " 

This soulless Briton had never read any of the poems 
about the " boundless continent," and had no distinct con- 
ception of " size." 

From Dinwiddle fields, Sheridan's men went galloping, 
by the aid of maps and cross-examination, into every by- 
road ; but it was soon apparent that the Rebel infantry meant 
to give them a push. This came about on Friday, with a 
foretaste on Thursday. 

Little Five Forks, is a cross-road not far from Dinwiddle 
Court House, in the direction of Petersburg. Big Five 
Forks, which, it must be borne in mind, gives name to the 
great battle of Saturday, is farther out by many miles, and 
does not lie within our lines. But, if the left of the army be 
at Dinwiddle, and the right at Petersburg, Little Five Forks 
will be first on the front line, though when Sheridan fought 
there, it was neutral ground, picketed but not possessed. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 317 

Very early in the week, when the Rebels became aware of 
the extension of our lines, they added to the regular force 
which encamped upon our flank line at least a division of 
troops. These were directed to avoid an infantry fight, but 
to seek out the cavalry, and, by getting it at disadvantage, 
rid the region both of the harmfulness of Sheridan, and that 
prestige of his name, so terrifying to the Virginia house- 
wife. So long as Sheridan remained upon the far left, the 
Southside road was unsafe, and the rapidity with which his 
command could be transferred from point to point rendered 
it a formidable balance of power. The Rebels knew the 
country well, and the peculiar course of the highways gave 
them every advantage. The cavalry of Sheridan's army 
proper, is divided into two corps, commanded by Generals 
Devin and Custer ; the cavalry of the Potomac is com- 
manded by General Crook ; Mackenzie has control of the 
cavalry of the James. On Frida}^, these were under sep- 
arate orders, and the result was confusion. The infantry 
was beaten at Gravelly Run, and the cavalry met in flank 
and front by overwhelming numbers, executed some move- 
ments not laid down in the manual. The centre of the 
battle was Little Five Forks, though the Rebels struck us 
closer to Dinwiddle Court House, and drove us pell mell up 
the road into the woods, and out the old Court House road 
to Gravelly Run. We rallied several times, and charged 
them into the woods, bat they lay concealed in copses, and 
could go where sabres were useless. The plan of this battle- 
field will show a series of irregular advances to puzzle any- 
body but a cavalry-man. The full division of Bushrod 
Johnston and General Pickett, were developed against us, 
with spare brigades from other corps. Our cavalry loss 
during the day was eight hundred in killed and wounded ; 
but we pushed the Rebels so hard that they gave us the 
field, falling back toward Big Five Forks, and we intrenched 
immediately. Two thousand men comprise our losses of 
27* 



318 CAMrAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

Friday in Warren^s corps and Sheridan's command, includ- 
ing many valuable officers. We shall see how, under a 
single guidance, splendid results were next day obtained 
with half the sacrifice. 

On Friday night General Grant, dissatisfied, like most 
observers, with the day's business, placed General Sheridan 
in the supreme command of the whole of Warren's corps 
and all the cavalry. General Warren reported to him at 
nightfall, and the little army was thus composed : — 

Genej^al Sheridan's Forces, Saturday April 1, 1865. 

Three divisions of infantry, under Generals Griffin, Ayres, 
and Crawford. 

Two divisions of cavalry, formerly constituting the Army 
of the Shenandoah, now commanded by General Merritt, 
under Generals Devin and Custer. 

One division cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, under 
General Crook. 

Brigade or more cavalry Army of the James, under Gen- 
eral Mackenzie. 

In this composition the infantry was to the cavalry in the 
proportion of about two to one, and the entire force a consid- 
erable army, far up in the teens. Sheridan was absolute, and 
his oddly-shaped body began to bob up and down straightway ; 
he visited every part of his line, though it stretched from Din- 
widdie Court House to the Quaker road, along the Boydtown 
Plank and its adjuncts. At daybreak on Saturday he fired 
four signal-guns, to admonish Warren he was off; and his 
cavalry, by diverging roads, struck their camps. Just 
south of Culpepper is a certain Stony creek, the tributaries 
to which wind northward and control the roads. Over 
Stony creek went Crook, making the longest detour. Cus- 
ter took a bottom called Chamberlain's bed ; and Devin 
advanced from Little Five Forks, the whole driving the 
Rebels toward the left of their works on White Oak road. 

We must start with the supposition that our own men far 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 319 

outnumbered the Rebels. The latter were widely separated 
from their comrades before Petersburg, and the adjustment 
of our infantry as well as the great movable force at Sheri- 
dan's disposal, renders it doubtful that they could have re- 
turned. At any rate they did not do so, whether from 
choice or necessity, and it was a part of our scheme to push 
them back into their entrenchments. This work was dele- 
gated to the cavalry entirely, but, as I have said before, 
mounted carbineers, are no match for stubborn, bayoneted 
infantry. So when the horsemen were close up to the Reb- 
els, they were dismounted, and acted as infantry to all in- 
tents. A portion of them, under Gregg and Mackenzie, 
still adhered to the saddle, that they might be put in rapid 
motion f^r flanking and charging purposes ; but fully five 
thousand indurated men, who had seen service in the Shen- 
andoah and elsewhere, were formed in line of battle on foot, 
and by charge and deploy essayed the difficult work of 
pressing back the entire Rebel column. This they were to 
do so evenly and ingeniously, that the Rebels should go no 
farther than their works, either to escape eastward or to 
discover the whereabouts of Warren's forces, which were 
already forming. Had they espied the latter they might 
have become so discouraged as to break and take to the 
woods ; and Sheridan's object was to capture them as well 
as to rout them. So, all the afternoon, the cavaby pushed 
them hard, and the strife went on uninterruptedly and ter- 
riiicaily. I have no space in this hurried despatch to ad- 
vert either to individual losses or to the many thrilling 
episodes of the fight. It was fought at so close quarters 
that our carbines were never out of range ; for had this been 
otherwise, the long rifles of the enemy would have given 
them every advantage. With their horses within call, the 
cavalry-men, in line of battle, stood together like walls of 
stone, swelling onward like those gradually elevating ridges 
of which Lyell speaks. Now and then a detachment of 
Rebels v/ould charge down upon us, swaying the Hues and 



320 CAMPAIGNS OF A XOX-CO^IBATANX. 

threateuing to annihilate us ; for at no part of the action, 
till its crisis, did the Southern men exhibit either doubt or 
dismay, but fought up to the standard of the most valiant 
treason the world has ever had, and here and there show- 
ing some of those wonderful feats of individual courage 
which are the miracles of the time. 

A colonel with a shattered regiment came down upon us 
in a charge. The bayonets were fixed ; the men came on 
with a yell ; their g'ra}^ uniforms seemed black amidst the 
smoke ; their preserved colors, torn by grape and ball, 
waved yet defiantly ; twice they halted, and poured in vol- 
leys, but came on again like the surge from the fog, de- 
pleted, but determined ; yet, in the hot faces of- the carbi- 
neers, they read a purpose as resolute, but more calm, and, 
while they pressed along, swept all the while by scathing 
volleys, a group of horsemen took them in flaiik. It was an 
awful instant ; the horses recoiled ; the charging column 
trembled like a single thing, but at once the Rebels, with 
rare organization, fell into a hollow square, and with solid 
sheets of steel defied our centaurs. The horsemen rode 
around them in vain ; no charge could break the shining- 
squares, until our dismounted carbineers poured in their 
volleys afresh, making gaps in the spent ranks, and then in 
their v/avering time the cavalry thundered down. The 
Rebels could stand no more ; they reeled and swayed, and 
fell back broken and beaten. And on the ground their col- 
onel lay, sealing his devotion with his life. 

Through wood and brake and swamp, across field and 
trench, we pushed the fighting defenders steadily. For a 
part of the time, Sheridan himself was there, short and 
broad, and active, waving his hat, giving orders, seldom 
out of fire, but never stationary, and close by fell the long 
yellow locks of Custer, sabre extended, fighting like a Vi- 
king, though he was worn and haggard with much work. 
At four o'clock the Rebels were behind their wooden walls at 
Five Forks, and still the cavalry pressed them hard, in feint 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 321 

rather than solemn effort, while a battalion dismounted, 
charged squarely upon the face of their breastworks which 
lay in the main on the north side of the White Oak road. 
Then, while the cavalry worked round toward the rear, the 
infantry of Warren, though commanded by Sheridan, pre- 
pared to take part in the battle. 

The genius of Sheridan's movement lay in his disposition 
of the infantry. The skill with wJiich he arranged it, and 
the difficult mancBuvres he projected and so well executed, 
should place him as high in infantry tactics as he has here- 
tofore shown himself superior in cavalry. The infantry 
which had marched at 2J p. m. from the house of Boisseau, 
on the Boydtown plank-road, was drawn up in four battle 
lines, a mile or more in length, and in the beginning facing 
the White Oak road obliquely ; the left or pivot was the 
division of General Ayres, Crawford had the center and 
Griffin the right. These advanced from the Boydtown 
plank-road, at ten o'clock, while Sheridan was thundering 
away with the cavalry, mounted and dismounted, and de- 
/luding the Rebels with the idea that he was the sole attack- 
ing party ; they lay concealed in the woods behind the 
Gravelly Run meeting-house, but their left was not a half- 
mile distant from the Rebel works, though their right 
reached so far off that a novice would have criticized the 
position sharply. Little by little, Sheridan, extending his 
lines, drove the whole Rebel force into their breastworks ; 
then he dismounted Mie mass of his cavalry and charged the 
works straight in the front, still thundering on their flank. 
At last, every Rebel was safe behind his intrenchments. 
Then the signal was given, and the concealed infantry, many 
thousand strong, sprang up and advanced by echelon to the 
right. Imagine a great barndoor shutting to,, and you have 
the movement, if you can also imagine the door itself, hinge 
and all, moving forward also. This was the door : — 

AYRES CRAWFORD GRIFFIN. 

Stick a pin through Ayres and turn Grifnn and Crawford 



322 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

forward as you avguM a spoke in a wheel, but move your 
pin up also a ver^^ little. In this way Ayres will advance, 
say half a mile, and Griffin, to describe a quarter revolution, 
will move through a radius of four miles. But to compli- 
cate this movement by e9helon, we must imagine the right 
when half way advanced cutting across the centre and re- 
ibrming, while Crawford became the right and Griffin the 
middle of the line of battle. Warren was with Crawford on 
this march. Gregory commanded the skirmishers. Ayres 
was so close to the Rebel left that he might be said to hinge 
upon it ; and at 6 o'clock the whole corps column came 
crash upon the full flank of the astonished Rebels. Now 
came the pitch of the battle. 

We were already on the Rebel right in force, and thinly 
in their rear. Our carbineers were making feint to charge in 
direct front, and our infantry, four deep, hemmed in their 
entire left. All this they did not for an instant note, so 
thorough was their confusion; but seeing it directly, they, so 
far from giving up, concentrated all their energ}^ and fought 
like fiends. They had a battery in position, which belched 
incessantly, and over the breastworks their musketry made 
one unbroken roll, while against Sheridan's prowlers on 
their left, by skirmish and sortie, they stuck to their sinking 
fortunes, so as to win unwilhng applause from mouths of 
wisest censure. 

It was just at the coming up of the infantry that Sheri- 
dan's little band was pushed the hartiest. At one time, 
indeed, they seemed about to undergo extermination ; not 
that they wavered, but that they were so vastly over- 
pov/ered. It will remain to the latest time a matter of 
marvel that so paltry a cavalry force could press back six- 
teen thousand infantry ; but when the infantry blew like a 
great barndoor — the simile best applicable — upon the 
enemy's left, the victory that was to come had passed the 
region of strategy and resolved to an aifair of personal 
courage. We had met the enem}^ ; were they to be ours ? 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 323 

To expedite this consummation every officer fought as if he 
were the forlorn hope. Mounted on his black pony, the 
same which he rode at Winchester, Sheridan galloped 
everywhere, his flushed face all the redder, and his plethoric, 
hut nervous figure all the more ubiquitous. He galloped 
once straight down the Kebel front, with but a handful of 
his staff. A dozen bullets whistled for him together ; one 
grazed his arm, at which a faithful orderly rode ; the black 
pony leaped high, in fright, and Sheridan was untouched, 
but the orderly lay dead in the field, and the saddle dashed 
afar empty. General Warren rode with Crawford most of 
the afternoon, mounted likewise, and making two or three 
narrow escapes. He was dark, dashing, and individual as 
ever, but for some reason or other was relieved of his com- 
mand after the battle, and Griffin was instated in his place. 
General Sheridan ordered Warren to report to General 
Grant's 'head-quarters, sending the order by an aid. Warren, 
on his own hook, did not meet on Friday with his general 
success, and on Saturday Sheridan was the master-spirit ; 
but Warren is a General as well as a gentleman, and is only 
overshadowed by a greater genius, — not obliterated. 
Ayres, accounted the best soldier in the Fifth corps, but too 
quietly modest for his own favor, fought like a lion in this 
pitch of battle, making all the faint-hearted around him 
ashamed to do ill with such an example contiguous. General 
Bartlett, keen-faced and active like a fiery scimitar, was lead- 
ing his division as if he were an immortal ! He was closest 
at hand in the most gallant episodes, and held at nightfall a 
bundle of captured battle-flags. But Griffin, tall and slight, 
was the master-genius of the Fifth corps, to which by right 
he has temporarily succeeded. He led the charge on the 
flank, and was the first to mount the parapet with his horse, 
riding over the gunners as May did at Cerro Gordo, and 
cutting them down. Bartlett^s brigade, behind him, 
finished the business, and the last cannon was fired for the 
day against the conquering Federals. General Crawford 



324 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-C03iCATANT. 

fulfilled his full share of duties throughout the day, amply 
sustained by such splendid brigade commanders as Baxter, 
Coulter, and Kellogg, v/hile Gwin and Boweryman were at 
hand in the division of General Ayres ; not to omit the 
fallen Winthrop, who died to save a friend and win a new 
laurel. What shall I say for Chamberlain, who, beyond all 
question, is the first of our brigade fcommanders, having 
been the hero of both Quaker Road and Gravelly Bun, and 
in this action of Five Forks making the air ring with the 
applauding huzzas of his soldiers, who love him ? His is 
one of the names that will survive the common wreck of 
shoulder-straps after the war. 

But I am individualizing ; the fight, as we closed upon 
the Rebels, was singularly free from great losses on our side, 
though desperate as any contest ever fought on the conti-" 
cent. One prolonged roar of rifle shook the afternoon ; we 
carried no artillery, and the Rebel battery, until its capture, 
raked us like an irrepressible demon, and at every foot of 
the intrenchments a true man fought both in front and be- 
hind. The birds of the forest fled afar ; the smoke ascended 
to heaven ; locked in so mad frenzy, none saw the sequel 
of the closing day.' Now Richmond rocked in her high 
towers to watch the impending issue, but soon the day be- 
gan to look gray, and a pale moon came tremulously out to 
watch the meeting squadrons. Imagine along a line of a 
full mile, thirty thousand men struggling for life and pres- 
tige ; the woods gathering about them — but yesterday the 
home of hermit hawks and chipmonks — now ablaze with 
bursting shells, and showing in the dusk the curl of flames 
in the tangled grass, and, rising up the boles of the pine 
trees, the scaling, scorching tongues. Seven hours this 
terrible spectacle had been enacted, but the finale of it had 
almost come. 

It was by all accounts in this hour of victory when the 
modest and brave General Winthrop of the first brigade, 
Ayres division, was mortall}^ wounded. He was riding 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 325 

a,long the breastworks, and in the act as I am assured, of 
saving a friend's life, was shot through to the left lung. 
He fell at once, and his men, who loved him, gathered around 
and took him tenderly to the rear, where he died before the 
stretcher on which he lay could be deposited beside the 
meeting-house door. On the way from the field to the hos- 
pital he wandered in mind at times, crying out, '' Captain 
\Veaver how is that line? lias the attack succeeded?" 
etc. When he had been resuscitated for a pause he said : 
" Doctor, I am done for.'^ His last words were : " Straighten 
the line ! '' And ho died peacefully. He was a cousin of 
Major Winthrop, the author of '' Cecil Dreeme.'' He was 
twenty-seven years of age. I had talked with him before 
going into action, as he sat at the side of General Ayres, 
and was permitted by the guard of honor to uncover his 
face and look upon it. He was pale and beautiful, marble 
rather than corpse, and the uniform cut away from his 
bosom showed how white and fresh was the body, so pulse- 
less now. 

General Griffin said tome: "This victory is not worth 
Winthrop's life.'^ 

Winthrop went into the service as a simple color-bearer. 
He died a brevet brigadier. 

At seven o'clock the Kebels came to the conclusion that 
they were outflanked and whipped. They had been so 
busily engaged that they were a long time finding out how 
desperate were their circumstances ; but now, v^earied with 
persistent assaults in front, they fell back to the left, only 
to see four close lines of battle waiting to drive them across 
the field, decimated. At the right the horsemen charged 
them in their vain attempt to fight " out,'' and in the rear 
straggling foot and cavalry began also to assemble ; slant fire 
cross fire, and direct fire, by file and volley rolled in perpet- 
ually, cutting down their bravest officers and strewing the 
fields with bleeding men ; groans resounded in the intervals 
28 



826 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

of exploding powder, and to add to their terror and despair, 
their own artillery, captured from them, threw into their 
own ranks, from its old position, ungrateful grape and can- 
ister, enfilading their breastworks, whizzing and plunging 
by air line and ricochet, and at last bodies of cavalry fairly 
mounted their intrenchments, and charged down the para- 
pet, slashing and trampling them, and producing inexplica- 
ble confusion. They had no commanders, at least no or- 
ders, and looked in vain for some guiding hand to lead them 
out of a toil into which they had fallen so bravely and so 
blindly. A few more volleys, a new and irresistible charge, 
a shrill and warning command to die or surrender, and, 
with a sullen and tearful impulse, five thousand muskets 
are flung upon the ground, and five thousand hot, exhausted, 
and impotent men are Sheridan's prisoners of war. 

Acting with his usual decision, Sheridan placed his cap- 
tives in care of a provost-guard, and sent them at once to 
the rear. Those which escaped, he ordered the fiery Custer 
to pursue with brand and vengeance ; and they were pressed 
far into the desolate forest, spent and hungry, many falling 
by the way of wounds or exhaustion, many pressed down 
by hoof or sabre-stroke, and many picked up in mercy and 
sent back to rejoin their brethren in bonds. We captured 
in all fully six thousand prisoners. General Sheridan esti- 
mated them modestly at five thousand, but the provost-mar- 
shal assured me that he had a line four abreast a full mile 
long". I entirel}^ bear him out, having ridden for forty min- 
utes in a direction opposite to that they were taking, and 
growing weary at last of counting or of seeing them. They 
were fine, hearty fellows, almost all Virginians, and seemed 
to take their capture not unkindly. They wore the gray 
and not very attractive uniform of the Confederacy, but 
looked to be warm and fat, and passing along in the night, 
under the fir-trees, conveyed at most a romantic idea of 
grief and tribulation. They were put in a huge pen, mid- 
way between Big and Little Five Forks, for the night, the 



CAMPAIGNS OF A XON-COJ\IBATANT. o27 

officers sharing the same fare with the soldiers, from whom, 
indeed, they were undistinguishable. 

Thus ended the splendid victory of Five Forks, the least 
bloody to us, but the most successful, proportionate to 
numbers engaged, that has been fought during the war. 
One man out of every three engaged took a prisoner. We 
captured four cannon, an ambulance train and baggage- 
teams, eight thousand muskets, and twenty-eight battle- 
flags. General Longstreet, it is thought, commanded. 
Neither he nor Pickett nor Bushrod Johnston, division com- 
manders, were taken ; they were wise enough to see that. 
the day was lost, and imitated Bonaparte after Waterloo. 

I attribute this victory almost entirely to Sheridan ; it 
was won by strategy and persistence, and in great part by 
men who would not stand fire the day before. The happy 
distribution of duties between cavalry and infantry excited 
a fine rivalry, and the consciousness of Sheridan's guidance 
inspired confidence. Has any battle so successful ever been 
fought in Virginia ? or, indeed, in the East ? I think not. 
It has opened to us the enemy's flank, so that we can sweep 
down upon the Appomattox and inside of his breastworks, 
enabling us to shorten our lines of intrenchments one half, 
if no more, and putting out of Lee's service fifteen thou- 
sand of his choicest troops. And all this, General Sheridan 
tells me, has cost him personally no more than eight hun- 
dred men, and the service no more than fifteen hundred. 
Compare this with Chancellorsville, Williamsburg, the Wil- 
derness, Bull Run, and what shall we s?ij ? The enemy 
must have lost in this fight three thousand in killed and 
wounded. 

The scene at Gravelly Run meeting-house at 8 and at 10 
o'clock on Saturday night, is one of the solemn contrasts 
of the war, and, I hope, the last of them. A little frame 
church, planted among the pines, and painted white, with 
cool, green window-shutters, holds at its foot a gallery for 
the negroes, and at the head a varnished pulpit. 1 found its 



328 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMILVTAXT, 

pews moved to the green plain over the threshold, and on 
its bare floors the screaming' wounded. Blood ran in little 
rills across the planks, and, human feet treading in them, 
had made indelible prints in every direction ; the pulpit- 
lamps were doing duty, not to shed holy light upon holy 
pages, but to show the pale and dusty faces of the beseech- 
ing ; and as they moved in and out, the groans and curses 
of the suffering replace the gush of peaceful hymns and the 
deep responses to the preacher's prayers. Federal and 
Confederate lay together, the bitterness of noon assuaged 
in the common tribulation of the night, and all the while 
came in the dripping stretchers, to place in this golgotha 
new recruits for death and sorrow. I asked the name of 
the church, but no one knew any more than if it had been 
the site of some obsolete heathen worship. At last, a grin- 
ning sergeant smacked his thumbs as if the first idea of his 
life had occurred to him, and led me to the pulpit. Beneath 
some torn blankets and rent officers' garments, rested the 
h^^mn book and Bible, which he produced. Last Sunday 
these doled out the praises of God, and the frightened con- 
gregation worshipped at their dictation. Now they only 
served by their fly leaves to give me my whereabouts, and 
said : — 

Presented to Gravelly Run Meeting House by the Ladies. 

Over the portal, the scenes within were reiterated, except 
that the greatness of a starry night replaced the close and 
terrible arena of the church. Beneath the trees, where the 
Methodist circuit-rider had tied his horse, and the urchins, 
during class-meeting, had wandered away to cast stones 
at the squirrels, and measure strength at vaulting and run- 
ning, the gashed and fevered lay irregularly, some soul 
going out at each whiff of the breeze in the fir-tops ; and 
the teams and surgeons, and straggling soldiers, and gal- 
loping orderlies passed all the night beneath the old and 
gibbous moon and the hushed stars, and by the trickle of 
Gravelly Run stealing off, afeared. But the wounded had 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 329 

no thought that night ; the victory absorbed all hearts ; we 
had no losses to notice where so much was won. 

A mile past the church, going away from head-quarters 
all the time, lies Five Forks, the object and name of the 
battle. A large open field of perhaps thirty acres, inter- 
poses between the church and the commencement of the 
Rebel works. Their left is only some rails and logs to mask 
marksmen, but the work proper is a very long stretch of 
all obstructions of a man's height in relief. 

The AVhite Oak road runs directly in front of these in- 
trenchments, and was, at the time I passed, the general 
highway for infantry returning from the field and cavalry- 
men concentrating at General Sheridan's bivouac. Ptiding a 
mile I came upon the Five Forks proper, and just to the 
left, at the foot of some pines, the victor and his assistants 
were congregated. Sheridan sat by some fagots, exam- 
ining a topographical map of the country he had so well 
traversed ; possibly with a view to design further aggres- 
sive movements in the morning. He is opposite me now 
as I pen these paragraphs by the imperfect blaze of his 
bivouac fire. He is good humored and talkative, like all 
men conscious of having achieved a great work, and has 
been good enough to sketch for me the plan of the day's 
operations, from which I have compiled much of the statement 
above. Close by lies Custer, trying to sleep, his long yel- 
low hair covering his face ; and General Griffin, now com- 
manding the Fifth corps, goes here and there issuing orders, 
while aides and orderlies rode in and out, bearing further 
fresh messages of deeds consummated or proposed. We 
shall have a hot night no doubt, for away off to the right, 
continue volleys of musketry and discharges of artillery, 
intermixed with what seem to be thunderbolts of our men- 
of-war at anchor in the Appomatox and James, — if such 
can be heard at this great distance, — which tell us that the 
lines are in motion. 
28* 



i 



CHAPTER XXX. 



EICHMOND DESOLATE. 



The scenes of entering the doomed stronghold, when 
Grant had burst its gates, ought to be made vivid as the 
spectacle of death. With my good and talented associate, 
Mr. Jerome B. Stillson, I hold the Spotswood Hotel, and 
from this caravansary of the late capital as thoroughly iden- 
tified v^^ith Rebellion as the inn at Bethlehem with the gos- 
pel, we date our joint paragraphs upon the condition of the 
city. A week cannot have exhausted the curiosity of the 
North to learn the exact appearance of a city which has 
stood longer, more frequent, and more persistent sieges, 
than any in Christendom. This town is the Rebellion ; it 
is all that we have directly striven for ; quitting it, the 
Confederate leaders have quitted their sheet-anchor, their 
roof-tree, their abiding hope. Its history is the epitome of 
the whole contest, and to us, shivering our thunderbolts 
against it for more that four years, Richmond is still a mys- 
tery. 

Know then, that, whether coming from Washington or 
Baltimore, the two points of embarkation, all bound hither- 
ward must rendezvous at Fortress Monroe ; thence, in such 
excellent steamers as the Dictator, start up the broad James 
River. To own a countrj'-house upon the '' Jeems" river 
is the Virginia gentleman's ultimate aspiration. There, 
v/ith a tobacco-farm, and wide wheatlands, his feet on his 
front-porch rails, a Havana cigar between his teeth, and a 

(330) 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMB ATAXT. 331 

colored person to bring him frequent juleps, the Virginia 
gentleman, confident in the divinity of slavery, hopes in his 
natural, refined idleness, to watch the little family grave- 
yard close up to his threshold, till it shall kindly open and 
give him sepulture. 

Elsev^here men aim to be successful, or enterprising, or 
eloquent, or scholarly, but that nobleness of hospitality, 
high spirit, dignity, and affability v^hich constitute our icTea 
of chivalry is everywhere save here an exotic. We say 
that chivalry is " played out,'' and that the prestige of 
" firet familioe '' is gone with the hurried retreat before 
Grant's salamanders. Not so. Secession as a cause is past 
the range of possibilities. But no people in their subjuga- 
tion wear a better front than these brave old spirits, whose 
lives are not their own. Fire has ravaged their beautiful 
city, soldiers of the color of their servants, guard the cross- 
ings and pace the pavement with bayoneted muskets. But 
gentlemen they are still, in every pace, and inch, and sylla- 
ble, — such men as we were wont to call brothers and 
countrymen. However, the James Eiver, at which we com- 
menced, has not a town upon it between the sea and the 
head of navigation. It is a strong commentary upon this 
patriarchal civilization, judged by our gregarious tastes, 
that one of the noblest streams in the world should show to 
the traveller only here and there a pleasant mansion, flanked 
by negro cabins, but nowhere a church-spire nor a steam- 
mill. All that we see from Fortress Monroe to City Point 
are ridges of breastworks, rifle-pits, and forts, lying bare, 
yellow, and deserted, to defend its passage, excepting at 
James Island, where the solitary and broken tower of the 
ancient colony holds guard over some bramble and ruin. 
Here Smith founded the celebrated settlement, which wooed 
to its threshold the gentle Pocahontas, and fell to fragments 
at the behest of the fiery Bacon. The ramparts on the 
James will remain forever ; great as they arc, they would 
hardly hold the bones of the slain in the capture and defence. 



332 CAMPAIGNS OF A XOX-COMBATANT. 

Four hours from Fortress Monroe we pass Harrison's Land- 
ing", where two grand armies, beaten aside from Richmond, 
sought the shelter of the river, and at City Point quit our 
large craft, to be transferred to a light dr-aught vessel, 
which is to carry the first mail going to Richmond under the 
national flag since the beginning of the war. 

City Point is still a populous place, and the millions of 
mules upon it bray hoarsely ; but we leave all these behind, 
as well as the national standard, which flaunts over General 
Grant's late head-quarters, and steam past the mouth of the 
Appomattox to go through the enemy's lines. 

Henceforward every foot of the way is freshly interesting. 
The Rebel ram Atlanta in tow of a couple of tugs, goes past 
us with a torpedo boat at the rear. She is raking, slant, 
and formidable; but ''old glory " is waving on her. Di- 
rectly our own leviathan, the Roanoke drifts up, and all her 
storm-throated tars cheer like the belch of her guns. We 
see to the right, the tip of Malvern Hill, ever sorrowful and 
sacred, and soon a great unfinished ram careens by, which 
never grew to battle-size ; the true colors shine above her 
bulwarks like a flower growing in a carcass. Then at little 
intervals there are frequent prizes from the docks of Rich- 
mond, tugs, transports, barges, some of which show under 
our beautiful banner the Rebel cross, pale and contemptible. 
These malcontents committed as great crime against good 
taste in substituting for our starry emblem this artistic 
abomination, as against law and policy in changing the 
configuration of the Union. There is another flag, however, 
which we see, half exultantly, half vindictively, — the cross 
of St. George, — flying from a British cutter. 

By and by we come to our intrenchments upon the upper 
James and at Bermuda Hundred. Now they are very list- 
less and half empty. The boys have gone oif to tread on 
Lee's shanks. Only a few vessels stand at the landings, 
and the few remnants have laid down the rifle, and taken up 
the fishing-pole. One should come up this river to get 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 333 

a conception of our splendid navy. Sharp-pointed gun- 
boats, with bullet-proof crows' nests and swivels that are 
the gentlest murderers ever polished ; monitors through 
whose eyeholes a ball a big as a cook-stove squints from a 
columbiad socket ; ferry-boats which are speckled with brass 
cannon, and all sorts of craft that can float and manoeuvre, 
provided they look at us through deadly muzzles are there 
to the number of fifty or sixty, as many as make the entire 
navies of all other American nations. After the war we 
must have a great naval review, and invite all the crowned 
heads to attend it. Soon we reach Dutch Gap, where lies 
Butler's canal, or " Butler's gut," as the sailors call it. 
The river at this point is so crooked that Butler must have 
laid it out by the aid of his wrong eye. The canal is meant 
to cut on a long elbow ; but being almost. at right angles to 
the course of the river, only the most obliging tide would 
run through it. As a consequence, it is a sort of a sluice 
merel}^, of insufiScient width, and as a *' sight" very disap- 
pointing to great expectations. Between the points of 
debouch of this canal crosses a drawbridge of pontoons, for 
the use of our troops, and just beyond it Aiken's Landing, 
where the flag of truce boat stopped. A fine brick mansion 
stands in shore, with a wharf abreast it. The banks around 
it are trodden here with many feet. These are the traces 
of the poor prisoners who reached here, fevered, and starv- 
ing and naked, to catch for the first time the sight of cool 
waters and friends, and the bright flag which they had fol- 
lowed to the edge of the grave. How they threw up their 
hats, and cheered to the feeblest, and wept, and danced, 
and laughed. Long be the place remembered, as holy, 
neutral ground, where death never trod, and multitudes 
passed from suffering, to freedom and home. Beyond this 
point, the most formidable Rebel works we have seen, line 
the high bluffs and ridges. They are monuments of patient 
labor, and make of themselves hills as great as nature's. 
But the siege pieces, which often bellowed upon them like 



334 CAMrAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

thunderbolts along" the mountain-tops, are gone now, and 
only straggling, meddling fellows pass them at all. The 
hi^'hest of these works commands both ends of the Dutch 
Gap canal, and while our lads were digging they often hid 
themselves in caves which they dug in the clilf-sides. 

We reach the first torpedo at length ; a little red flag 
marks it, by which the boat slips tremulously, though 
another and another are before, at the sight of which our 
nervous folks are agitated. Here is a monitor with a drag 
behind it, which has just fished up one ; and the sequel is 
told by a bloody and motionless figure upon the deck. 
These torpedoes are the true dragon teeth of Cadmus, which 
spring up armed men. 

Happily for us, the Rebels have sown but few of them, 
and the position of these was pointed out by one of their 
captains who deserted to our side. In the midst of these 
lie the obstructions. Great hulks of vessels and chained 
spars, and tree-tops which reach quite across the river, ex- 
cept whore our pioneers have hewn a little gap to let the 
steamer through. Upon these obstructions a hundred 
cannon bear from the cliffs before us, and as we go further 
we see the whole river-bed sprinkled with strange contriv- 
ances to keep back our thunder-bearers. We think it abso- 
lutely impossible, under any circumstances, that our fleet 
could have got to Richmond so long as the Rebels contested 
the passage ; each step forward finds new and greater ob- 
stacles. The channel is as narrow as Harlem River and as 
crooked as a walk in the ramble of Central Park. Each 
elbow of the stream is muscular with snag and snare wher- 
ever the swift stream swoops around abruptly. Jagged 
abatis, driven piles, and artificial lumber, bar the Avay be- 
fore us. To the right of us, to the left of us, behind us, 
stand up the bare parapets, crowned with airy lookout 
towers, where, at the coming of a nautilus, the whole hori- 
zon and foreground would rain crossfires of shell and iron 
bolts, to sweep into annihilation the tiniest or the staunches! 



CAMPAIGNS OF A X0N-C03IBATANT. 335 

opposition from the earth's surface, and under the earth and 
above the earth death waited to leap up and draw the daring 
to its bosom. Not one, nor two, nor three lines of defences 
frowned down as we cautiously steamed along, but every 
precipice was bristling with defiance, as if the deep subter- 
ranean fires underlying our race had burst here fitfully and 
frequently, heaving up the swells of the hills till they 
lay hard and barren for human ingenuity to garnish them 
with anxious artillery. All along were the deep funnel- 
shaped cases of the torpedoes just disentombed. But at 
nightfall Drury's Bluff flitted by like the battlemented wall 
of a city, and then we saw no more. 

The band that greeted us from a distance stops playing 
as the boat uears the wharf. 

There is a stillness, in the midst of which Richmond, with 
her ruins, her spectral roof, afar, and her unchanging spires, 
rests beneath a ghastly, fitful glare, — the night stain which 
a great conflagration leaves beliind it for weeks, — struggling 
silently with colossal shadows along the foreground, tvv'o 
hideous walls alone arise in front, shutting these gleams. 
They are the Libby Prison and Castle Thunder. Right and 
left, and far in the moonlighted perspective beyond, there 
is a soft glitter upon cornices and domes. A haggard glow 
of candles, faintly defines the thoroughfares that have not 
suffered ruin ; while massive, and upon a height overlooking 
all, stands the Capitol, flying its black shadow from the 
sinking moon across a hundred crumbling walls, until its 
edges touch the windows of the Libby. 

But over its massive roof, dimly seen through the mists 
of the river, and, as before, '' through the mists of the deep," 
the banner of the Union, banished for four years, is shaken 
out again, broad and beautiful, by the breath of an April 
night. Upon the face of every leaning figure on the steam- 
er's deck, in sight of that radiant signal, is the same half- 
melancholy, half-triumphant smile. 

The thought of the battle which has passed, of the army, 



336 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 

which, after struggling through years for this majestic pro- 
cession, has swept by and beyond without the view for 
which its straining eyes have j^earned, is sad and strange. 
There comes back dimly suggestive, a story of Iran and his 
host, thundering at the gates of Tupelo, for the possession of 
a wondrous jewel, and awakening once upon a dawn to 
learn that Tupelo was an empty casket, — to turn back 
longing, " wondering eyes upon the city, and to hunt the 
fleeing prize afar." Yet unto those legions of the republic 
which have emptied Richmond of a prize which yet they may 
have easily clutched, there go out reverence and blessing 
even larger than might be bestowed upon them resting in 
camp, upon these overlooking hills. That true allegiance, 
that calm and stern self-sacrifice which impels an army for- 
ward past the sweet applauses and rewarding calms to 
which great victories might entitle it, are the purest sources 
of its glory and its fame. God bless the army that has per- 
mitted us to consummate this journey and to gaze upon this 
spectacle, while it does not impress us too proudly, too tri- 
umphantly. Both pride and triumph have, of course, a 
place in the tumultuous feeling that surges through the hearts 
of all ; yet as in every true man is born an instinct of com- 
passion for a fallen foe, we prefer that the shout should go 
up in honor of our victory alone, and not because these 
have suffered. 

The boat touches the shore at Rockett's, the foot of Rich- 
mond. A few minutes' walk and we tread the pavements 
of the capital. There are no noisy and no beseeching run- 
ners ; there is no sound of life, but the stillness of a cata- 
comb, only as our footsteps fall dull on the deserted side- 
walk, and a funeral troop of echoes bump their elfin heads 
against the dead walls and closed shutters in reply, and this 
is Richmond. Says a melancholy voice : " And this is 
Richmond." 

We are under the shadow of ruins. From the pavements 
where we walk far off into the gradual curtain of the night, 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATANT. 337 

stretches "a vista of desolation. The hundreds of fabrics, 
the millions of wealth, that crumbled less than a week ago 
beneath one fiery kiss, here topple and moulder into rest. 
A white smoke-wreath rising occasionally, enwraps a shat- 
tered wall as in a shroud. A gleam of flame shoots a gro- 
tesque picture of broken arches and ragged chimnej^s into 
the brain. Huge piles of debris begin to encumber the 
sidewalks, and even the pavements, as we go on. The 
streets in some places are quite choked up from walking. 
We are among the ruins of half a city. The wreck, the 
loneliness, seem interminable. The memory of lights in 
houses above, beheld while upon the steamer, alone keeps 
despondency from a victory over hope ; and although the 
continued existence of the Spottswood Hotel is vouched 
for by authority, my lodge in such a wilderness seems next 
to impossible. Away to the right, above the waste of 
blackened walls, around the phantom-looking flag upon the 
capitol, — the only sign betwixt heaven and earth, or upon 
the earth, that Kichmond is not wholly deserted, — beyond 
and out of the ruins, we walk past one of two open door- 
ways where the moon serves as candle to a group of talk- 
ing negroes. The gas works, injured by fire, are not work- 
ing, and ''ile" has not been struck in the Confederacy. 
Not a white man appears until we reach the Spottswood, — 
there before the entrance is a conclave of officers, — then, at 
last, entering, we stand in that most famous of Southern 
hotels, the interior of which is filled with the very aroma of 
the Rebellion. A thankful yielding up of carpet-bags and 
valises to the indignant negro waiters, and then a brief 
moonlight stroll toward the capitol. 

Within the gates of the Square, that swing on their 
hinges silent as the hour we pass alone, before us stands 
the magnificent monument crowned with Crawford's eques- 
trian statue of Washington. The right hand of the rider, 
lifted against the sky, points a prophetic finger toward the 
southwest. Dark, and motionless, and grand, it is the one 
29 



338 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03mATAM . 

symbol belonging solely to the Union, which they have not 
dared to desecrate ; which they have strangely chosen to 
consider neither as an insult nor a rebuke. 

Gazing beyond at the capitol itself, and back again at the 
figure which overlooks the building, it is not hard to imag- 
ine that, while the noisy debates of a congress of traitors 
to the Union that he founded were in progress, those bronze 
lips sometimes smiled in scorn. 

Leaving Richmond proper, and descending into the low, 
squalid portion of the town known as Rocketts, one sees 
among the many large warehouses, used without exception 
for the storage of tobacco, a certain one more irregular than 
the rest. An archway leads into it, and upon the outside 
of the second story windows runs a long ledge or footway, 
whereupon sentries used to stride, guarding the miserable 
people within. This is the jail of Castle Thunder, and it was 
the civil or State prison of the capital. Ill as were the accom- 
modations of prisoners of war, the treatment of their own 
unoffending citizens by the Rebel government was ten times 
more infamous. We could not repress indignation, nor by 
any philosophic or charitable effort excuse the atrocious 
tyranny which here lashed, chained, handcuffed, tortured, 
shot, and hung, hundreds of people whom it could not stul- 
tify or impress. We may graat that the Confederacy had 
become a government ; that, in its perilous incipiency, it 
had apology for severity and rigor with all malcontents ; 
that, in its own struggle for death or life, it might, in self- 
defence, absorb all private liberty ; but even thus the ter- 
rible testimony of this Castle Thunder is an everlasting 
stigma upon the Southern cause. We entered its strong 
portal, and there in the new commandant's room lay the 
record left behind by the Confederates. Its pages made 
one shudder. 

These are some of the entries : — 

" George Barton, — giving food to Federal prisoners of 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-CO^IBATAXT. 339 

war ; forty lashes upon the bare back. Approved. Sen- 
tence carried into effect July 2. 

"Peter B. Innis, — passing forged government notes; 
chain and ball for twelve months ; forty lashes a day. Ap- 
proved. 

'' Arthur Wright, — attempting to desert to the enemy ; 
sentenced to be shot. Approved. Carried into effect, 
March 26. 

" John Morton, — communicating with the enemy ; to be 
hung. Approved. Carried into effect, March 26. ^' 

In an inner room are some fifty pairs of balls and chains, 
with anklets and handcuffs upon them, which have bent the 
spirit and body of many a resisting heart. Within are two 
condemned cells, perfectly dark, — a faded flap over the 
window peep-hole, — the smell from which would knock a 
strong man down. 

For in their centre lies the sink, ever open, and the floors 
are sapper with uncleanliness. To the right of these, a door 
leads to a walled yard not forty feet long, nor fifteen wide, 
overlooked by the barred windows of the main prison rooms, 
and by sentry boxes upon the wall-top. Here the wretched 
were shot and hung in sight of their trembling comrades. 
The brick wall at the foot of the yard is scarred and crushed 
by balls and bullets which first passed through some human 
heart and wrote here their damning testimony. The gal- 
lows had been suspended from a wing in the ledge, and in 
mid-air the impotent captive swung, none daring or willing 
to say a good word for him ; and not for any offence against 
God's law, not for wronging his neighbor, or shedding 
blood, or making his kind miserable, but for standing in the 
way of an upstart organization, which his impulse and his 
judgment alike impelled him to oppose. This little yard, 
bullet-marked, close, and shut from all sympathy, is to us 
the ghastliest spot in the world. Can Mr. Davis visit it, 
and pray as he does so devoutly afterward ? When men 



340 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

plead the justice of the South, and arguments are prompt to 
favor them, let this prison yard rise up and say that no such 
crimes in liberty's name have ever been committed, on this 
continent, at least. Up stairs, in Castle Thunder, there are 
two or three large rooms, barred and dimly lit, and two or 
three series of condemned cells, pent-up and pitchy, where, 
by a refinement of cruelty, the ceiling has been built low so 
that no man can stand upright. Here fifteen or twenty were 
crowded together, and, in the burning atmosphere, they 
stripped themselves stark naked, so that when in the morn- 
ing the cell-doors were opened, they came forth as from the 
grave, begging for death. There are women's cells too ; 
for this great and valiant government recognized women as 
belligerents, and locked them up close to a sentry's cart- 
ridge, so that, in the bitterness of solitude, they were un- 
sexed, and railed, and blasphemed, like wanton things. On 
the pavements before the jail, were hidden numberless 
guards, who shot at every rag fluttering from the cages, and 
all this little circle of death and terror was enacted close to 
the bright river, and airy pediment of that high capitol, where 
bold men hoped by war to wring from a reluctant Union, ac- 
knowledgment of arrogant independence to rein civilization 
as it pleased, and warp the destinies of our race. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE RUINS OF THE REBELLION. 

When Kichmond was a plain city, a county seat, and 
the residence of a governor and commonwealth legislature, 
its enterprise was as gradual as its hospitality and private 
probity were steadfast. It was always a fierce political 
arena, and its two great journals, the Whig and Enquirer, 
were not more violently partisan than its hustings. In the 
latter its debaters were wide-famed. No such '' stump '' 
has ever existed in America, commencing with Patrick 
Henry, whose eloquence was as intense and telling as his 
statesmanship was errant and inconsistent, and passing 
through the shrill and bitter apostrophies of John Randolph 
down io the latest era of Henry A. Wise, the most suffer- 
able and interminable campaign orator extant, and John 
Minor Botts, scarcely his inferior. With us, out of door 
rhetoric is dry, studied, and argumentative ; here an inspira- 
tion, based upon feeling rather than reason, and so earnest 
that it knew no personal friendship where its political afiSni- 
ties stopped. Whig and Democrat were not men of the 
same race or family in Richmond ; they passed each other 
on the sidewalk with a sneer or a scowl, and knew no coali- 
tion even in the house of God. Even when the Whig- 
party as an organization deceased, the Whigs, as individu- 
als, retained their traditional antipathy, and the advent of 
secession was decried by these, not because they loved the 
Union more, but the triumphant Democracy the less. Sep- 
29* (341) 



342 CAMPAIGNS OF A XON-COMBATANT. 

aration was a feature of the hated faith, and no good could 
come out of Nazareth. The Union men of Richmond who 
have hungered in Castle Thunder, and been driven, needy 
and naked, from the South, were all old line Whigs, dis- 
trusting the North, but disliking Democracy. However, 
the war burst at last, heralded by that mysterious lunatic 
who appeared like a warning giant in the twilight day of 
the Union, — old John Brown ; and as the Gulf States 
wheeled into line and pulled down the old colors, the Old 
Dominion, Southern and slaveholding, was too impulsive 
not to follow the whirlwind. She did not go for policy's 
sake, nor for principle's sake, but for emotion's sake. How 
wild and jubilant, and confident, were those Richmond mass 
meetings, at which separation was counselled ! How awful 
seems their levity at this distance, with the city conquered 
and in ruins I On the Capitol Hill the mad orators in- 
veighed ; within the Capitol met the disunion assembly in 
secret and prolonged session ; before the American, the Ex- 
change, and the Spottswood hotels, visiting commissioners 
harangued the crowd ; the people went to ballot on the day 
of State suicide, with laughing and wagging, and at the de- 
cree that Virginia and her people had resolved to quit the 
fabric of their fathers, bonfires and illuminations lit up the 
river and the sky. 

Done, these were the men to stand fast. Done in dream, 
the first acts were mirages rather than comprehensible 
events. They marched upon Harper's Ferry ; they sup- 
pressed the Unionists in their midst ; ihey erased the sacred 
mottoes of amity and unity from their monuments, and won 
to the new cause they so blindly embraced every inch of 
their soil except Old Point, where Fortress Monroe still 
stood defiant, to be in the end the source of their downfall. 
Gayly went the populace of Richmond, and splendid parties 
made the nights lustrous. When they heard that their town 
was mentioned, among many others, as the probable Con- 
federate capital, they threw their hearts into the suggestion 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 343 

and offered lands and edifices as free gifts for the honor of 
being" the centre of the South. A few, more interested, 
beheld in the coming of the seat of government higher rents 
and increased patronage, crowded hotels, and railway stock 
at a premium ; but the mass, with the enthusiasm of women 
or children, thought only of their beloved city growing in 
rank and power; the home of legislators, orators, and 
savans ; the seat of all rank and the depository of archives. 
At last the good news came ; Richmond was the capital of 
a great nation ; that courtesy bound all grateful Virginian 
hearts to the common cause forever ; the heyday and gratu- 
lation were renewed ; the new President, and the reverend 
senators appeared on Richmond streets ; the citizens were 
proud aii 1 happy. 

There, was no spectre of the mighty North, slov/ly rising 
from lethargy like those Medicean figures of Michael Angelo, 
which leap from stone to avengers. There was no mutter 
of coming storm, no clank of coming sabres and bayonets, 
no creak of great wheels rolling southward, and war in its 
extremest and most deadly phase. Richmond and Virginia 
laughed at these, flushed in the present, and invincible in 
the past. They only held high heads, — and trade, with 
vanity, grew strong, till every citizen wondered why all this 
glory had been so long delayed, and despised the ten years 
preceding the rupture, if not, indeed, the whole past of the 
Union. 

The President of the United States proclaimed war ; an 
army marched upon the city. Not until the battle of Bull 
Run, when the dead and mangled came by hundreds into 
the town, did any one discover the consequences of Rich- 
mond's new distinction ; but by this time the Rebel gov- 
ernment had absorbed Virginia, and was master of the city. 
Thenceforward Richmond was the scene of all terrors, the 
prey of all fears and passions. Campaign after campaign 
was directed against her ; she lived in the perpetual thun- 
der of cannon ; raiders pressed to her gates ; she was a 



344 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-CO:.IBATAXT. 

great garrison and hospital only, besieged and cut off from 
her own provinces ; armies passed through her to the sound 
of drums, and returned to the creak of ambulances. She 
lost her social prestige, and became a barrack-city, filled 
with sutlers, adventurers, and refugees, till, bearing bravely 
up amid domestic riot and horrible demoralization, — a jail, 
a navy-yard, a base of operations, — she grew pinched, and 
base, and haggard, and, at last, deserted. Given over to 
sack and fire, the wretches who used her retreated in the 
night, and the enemies she had provoked marched over her 
defences, and laid her — spent, degenerate, and disgraced — 
under martial law. 

The outline of the scenes immediately associated with the 
evacuation of Richmond has been told by telegraph. Now 
that the stupefied citizens have recovered reason and mem- 
ory so well as to tell us the story, it seems the most dra- 
matic and fearful of the war. On Saturday the city was 
calm and trusting ; Lee, its idol, held Grant, at Petersburg, 
fast ; the daily journals came out as usual, filled with 
soothing accounts ; that night came vague rumors of re- 
verses ; in the morning vaguer rumors of evacuation ; by 
Sunday night the public records were burned in the streets, 
and the only remaining railway carried off the specie of 
the banks ; before daylight on Monday, the explosions of 
bridges and half built ships of v/ar shook the houses ; in the 
imperfect day, women, and old men, and children began to 
sway and surge before the guarded depot, which refused to 
admit them ; then the town fell afire ; no remonstrance 
could pacify the incendiaries ; the spring wind carried the 
flame from the burning boats on the canal to the great Gal- 
ligo Mills, to files of massive warehouses groaning with 
tobacco, into the heart of the town, where stores, and 
'Vaults, and banks, and factories lined the wide, undulating 
streets ; it filled the gray concave with flame till the stars 
of the dawn shrank to pale invisibility in the advancing 
glare, and the crackle of hot roofs and beams, and the crash 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMEATANT. 345 

of walls and timbers, drowned the cries of the frightened 
and bankrupt, who beheld their fortunes wither in an hour, 
and the inheritance of their children fall to ashes. By the 
red, consuming light, poured past the straggling Confeder- 
ate soldiers, dead to the acknowledgment of private rights, 
and sacking shop and home with curses and ribaldry ; the 
suburban citizens and the menial negroes adopted their ex- 
amples ; carrying off whatever came next their hands, and 
y/ith arms full of ''swag,'' dropping it in the highway, 
lured by some dearer plunder, Negroes, with baskets of 
stolen champagne and rare jars of tamarinds, sought their 
dusky quarters to swill and carouse ; and whites of the 
middle, and even of the higher class, lent themselves to 
theft, who, before this debased era, would have died before 
so surrendering their honor. All was peril, terror, and li- 
cense ; all who had nothing to lose were thieves ; all who 
had anything left to lose were cowards. The conflagration 
swept through the densest, proudest blocks, driving off, not 
only the resident worthy, but the resident corrupt. Where 
were the lewd contractors, who had hoarded Confederate 
scrip by the basest exactions ? With the fall of the capital 
their dollars dwindled to dust ; four years of crime had re- 
sulted in beggary ; still, with grasping palms, they adhered 
to their valueless paper, bearing it away. But of all the 
wretched, the Cyprians were the foremost. These inhabited 
the dense and business part of the town, where their houses 
were serried and compact ; and, driven forth by the fire, 
they sought the street in their plumes and calicoes, to 
spend a cold and shivering bivouac in the square of the 
Capitol. From afar, the rich men of Sunday watched the 
flames of Monday sweeping on in terrible impetuosity, 
knowing that every tongue of light which leaped on high 
carried with it the competence they had sinned to acquire. 
And behind all, plunderer, incendiary, and straggler, came 
the one vague, overlapping, dreadful fear of — the enemy. 
Would they finish what friends had commenced, — the sack, 



346 CAIklPAIGNS OF A NOX-OOMBATANT. 

the desolation, the slaughter of the place ? Richmond had 
cost them half a million of lives, a mountain of blood and 
wealth, four years of deadly struggle ; would they not 
complete its ruin ? 

The morning came ; the Confederates were gone ; cavalry 
in blue galloped up the streets ; a brigade of white infantry 
filed after them ; then came the detested negroes. Behold I 
the victors, the subjugators, assist to quench the flames, — 
and Richmond is captured, but secure ! 

Many of the churches were open on the Sunday of April 
9, 1865, and were thinly attended by the more adventurous 
of the citizens, with a sprinkling of soldiers and Northern 
civilians. Mr. Woodbridge, at the Monument Church, 
built on the site of a famous burnt theatre, prayed for " all 
in authority,'' and held his tongue upon dangerous topics. 
The First Baptist Negro Church has been occupied all the 
week by Massachusetts chaplains, and Northern negro 
preachers, who have talked the gospel of John Brown to 
gaping audiences of wool, white-eyeball, and ivory, telling 
them that the day of deliverance has come, and that they 
have only to possess the land which the Lord by the bayonet 
has given them. To-day, Mr. Allen, the regular white 
preacher, occupied the pulpit, and told the negroes that 
slavery was a divine institution, which would continue for- 
ever, and that the duty of every good servant was to stay 
at home and mind his master. Half of the enlightened 
Africans got up midwaj^ of the discourse and left ; the rest 
were in doubt, and two or three black class-leaders, whom 
the parson had wheeled over, prayed lustily that the Lord 
v/ould keep Old Virginny from new ideas and all Yankee 
salvations ; so that in the end the population were quite 
tangled up, as much so as if they had read the book of 
Revelation. I attended Saint PauFs, the fashionable Episco- 
palian church, where Lee, Davis, Memminger, and the rest 
had been communicants, and heard Doctor Minnegerode 
discourse. He was one of the Prussian refug-ees of 1848, 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBxlTANT. 347 

and; though a hot Jacobin there, became a more bitter 
secessionist here. He is learned, fluent, and thoughtful, 
but speaks with a slight Teutonic accent. Jeff Davis's pew 
was occupied by nobody, the door thereof being shut. Jeff 
was a very devout man, but not so much so as Lee, who 
made all the responses fervently, and knelt at every require- 
ment. This church is capable of ''seating" fifteen hun- 
di-ed persons, has galleries running entirely around it, and 
is sustained at the roof within by composite pilasters of plas- 
ter, and at the pulpit by columns of mongrel Corinthian ; 
the tout ensemble is very excellent ; a darkey sexton gave us 
a pew, and there were some handsome ladies present, dark 
Richinond beauties, haughty and thinly clothed, with, only 
here and there a jockey-feathered hat, or a velvet mantilla, 
to tell of long siege and privation. We saw that those who 
dressed the shabbiest had yet preserved some little article 
of jewelry — a finger-ring, a brooch, a bracelet, showing- 
how the last thing in woman to die is her vanity. Poor, 
proud souls ! Last Sunday many of them were heiresses ; 
now many of them could not pay the expenses of their own 
funerals. There were some Confederate officers in the 
house. They reminded me of the captive Jews holding 
worship in their gutted Temple. Some ruffians broke into 
this church after the occupation, and wrote ribaldry in the 
Bible and hymn-book. Dr. Minnegerode dared not pray for 
the Confederate States, and his sermon was trite, based 
upon the text of the eleventh chapter of the Acts — " The 
disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." In the 
opening lesson, however, he aimed poison at the North, 
selecting the forty-fourth and following Psalms, commenc- 
ing, ''We have heard with our ears, God! our fathers 
have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the 
times of old,'^ Then it spoke of the heathen being driven 
out and the chosen people planted ; afflicted by God's dis- 
favor, the forefathers held the territory, and the generation 
extant would yet rout its enemies. But now the old stock 



348 CA3IPAIGN3 OF A NOX*-COMBATANT. 

were put to shame, a reproach to their neighbors and those 
that dwelt round about them. '' Thou hast broken us in the 
place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death,'' 
going not forth v/ith our armies, bowing our souls to the 
dust till our bellies cleave unto the earth ; we are killed all 
the day long, and counted as sheep for the slaughter. 

Let all who would drink the essence of sorrow and 
anguish, read this wonderful Psalm, to learn how after this 
recapitulation, the parson said aloud the thrilling invoca- 
tion. 

" Arise ! for our hel]), and redeem us for thy mercies' 
sake." 

Then came the next Psalm, light and tripping, full of 
praise for the king and his bride, coming to the nuptials 
with her virgin train : " instead of thy fathers, shall be thy 
children, whom thou mayst make princes in all the earth." 
A poetic parallel might be drawn between all this and the 
early hopes of Richmond ; but the third Psalm came in like 
a beautiful peroration. 

" God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 
trouble, — the Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob 
is our refuge. Selah I He maketh wars to cease unto the 
end of the earth : he breaketh the bow and cutteth the 
spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire." 

Clear, direct, and in meaning monotone, the captive high- 
priest read all this, so fearfully applicable to the subjugated 
and ruined town, and then the organ threw its tender music 
into the half-empty concave, sobbing like a far voice of 
multitudes, until the sweet singing of Madame Ruhl, the 
chorister, swept into the moan of pipes, and rose to a grand 
peal, quivering" and trilling, like a nightingale wounded, 
making more tears than the sublimest operatic effort and the 
house reeled and trembled, as if Miriam and her chanting 
virgins were lifting praises to God in the midst of the 
desert. 

That part of the New Testament read, by some strange 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 349 

fatuity, touches also the despair of the city. It told of 
Christ betrayed by Iscariot, deserted by his disciples, say- 
ing to his few trusty ones: "I will smite the shepherd, 
and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.'' 
''Can ye not watch with me one hour?'' he says to the 
limid and sleeping; and turning to his conquerors, avers 
lliat the Son of Man shall return to Jerusalem, '' sitting 
on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of 
heaven." All this, of course, was the prescribed lesson for 
the Sunday before Easter, which to-day happened to be ; but 
had the pastor searched it out to meet the exigencies of the 
place arid time, it could not have been more apr-opos. He 
read also from Daniel, where the king's dream was inter- 
preted ; his realm, like a tree worn down to the root, and 
the king himself making - his dwelling with the wild asses, 
but in the end ''thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after 
that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule." 

Again the organ rang, and the wonderful voice of the 
choristers alternated with deep religious j^i'ayers, whose 
refrain was, ''Have mercy upon us." // 

Only one Sunday gone by, the church was densely packed 
with Rebel officers and people ; Mrs. Lee was there, and the 
president, in his high and whitened hairs. Midway of the 
discourse a telegram came up the aisle, borne by a rapid 
orderly. The president read it, and strode away ; the 
preacher read it, and faltered, and turned pale ; it said : 

My lines are broken ; Richmond must be evacuated by midnight. 

Robert E. Lee. 

Ill news travels without words ; the whole house felt that 
tlie great calamity had come ; they broke for the doors, and 
left the rector, alone and frightened, to finish the solemn 
services. 

Now the enemy is here ; the music and tlie prayer are 
not interrupted. God is over all, whether Davis or Lincoln 
be uppermost. 

30 



350 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COjMBATANT. 

This campaign, so gloriously and promptly finished, has 
consumed just eleven days. It took three to flank the Rebel 
army, one to capture Petersburg, one to occupy Richmond, 
and six to pursue, oA'ertake, and capture the Army of 
Northern Virginia. No such memorable fighting has ever 
been known on our continent, and it parallels the Italian, 
the xVusterlitz, and the Jena campaigns ; in breadth of con- 
ception, it outrivals them all ; it took less men to do it than 
the last two ; it shows equal sagacity with any of them, but 
none of their brilliant episodes ; and, unlike them, we can- 
not trace its full credit to any single personality. It has 
made the army immortal, but the lustre of it is diffused, not 
concentrating upon any single head. Grant must be cred- 
ited with most of the combinations ; yet without the genius 
and activity of Sheridan, the bewildering rapidity of Sher- 
man, and the steadfastness of such reliable men as Wright, 
Parke, and Griffin, these combinations would have fallen 
apai't. It is said that Stoneman and Sheridan were to have 
joined their separate cavalry commands at Lynchburg, and 
effect a simultaneous junction with the iVrmy of the Poto- 
mac. This failed, through a miscalculation of distance or 
time ; but had they succeeded, we should have been less 
than three days in turning Lee's right, and so made the 
campaign even more concise. But Grant's talent has been 
marked and signal. He is the long-expected "coming 
man?' None can be lukewarm in surveying the nice ad- 
justment of so many separate and converging routes to a 
grand series of victories. Sherman leaves the Rebellion no 
Gulf city to inhabit, and cuts off Lee's retreat while he ab- 
sorbs Johnston ; the navy closes the last seaport ; Sheridan 
severs all communication with Richmond, and sv/ells the 
central forces ; then the Rebels are lured from their lines 
and scattered on their right ; the same night the intrench- 
ments of Petersburg are stormed, Richmond falls as this 
prop is removed, being already hungry-hearted, and the 
flushed army falls upon Lee and finishes the war. la not 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 351 

this work for gratulation ? Glory to the army, perfect at 
last, and to Grant, to Sheridan, to each of its commanders 1 

Let us not do injustice to Lee. His tactics at the close 
of his career were as brilliant as necessity would permit.- 
He could not feed Richmond, even though its impregnable 
works were behind him to retire to. So he gave his govern- 
ment time to evacuate, and, with his thinned and famishing 
ranks, made a bold push to join Johnston, some of whose 
battalions had alreadj^ reinforced him ; overtaken on the 
way, and punished anew, he did as any great and humane 
commander would do, — stopped the efl'usion of blood use- 
lessly, and gave up his sword. 

Unless Davis has been captured, we would think it im- 
probable that he had given up the Rebel cause. He was 
born to revolutionize, containing within himself all the ele- 
ments of a Rebel leader, and too proud to yield, even when, 
like Macbeth, pursued to his castle-keep. I am assured by 
those who know him best that he has been, throughout, the 
absolute master of the Confederacy, overawing Lee, who, 
from the first, was a reluctant Rebel ; and his design was, 
until abandoned by his army, to hold Richmond, even 
through starvation, making, behind its tremendous fortifica- 
tions, a defence like that of Leyden or Genoa. 

There is no more faith in the Rebellion ; it will be a long 
time before the United States is greatly beloved, but it will 
be always obeyed. Our soldiers look vfell, most of them 
being newly uniformed, and behave like gentlemen. Cour- 
tesy will conquer all that bayonets have not vvon. The 
burnt district is still hideously yawning in the heart of the 
town, a monument to the sternness of those bold revolu- 
tionists who are being hunted to their last quarry. Des- 
potism, under the plea of necessity, has met with its end 
here as it must everywhere. We shall have no more ex- 
periments for liberty out of the Union, if the new Union 
will grant all that it gave before. Yesterday, when our 
splendid levies were paraded in the street, with foot, cav- 



352 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 

ally, and canooii, in admirable order, and kindly-eyed men 
in command, I looked across their cleanly lines, tipped with 
bayonets, to the Capitol they had won, bearing at last the 
tri-color we all love and honor, as the symbol of our homes 
and the hope of the world, and thouglit how more grandly, 
even in her ruin, Richmond stood in the light of its crowd- 
ing stars, rather than the den of a desperate cabal, whose 
banner was known in no city nor sea, but as the ensign of 
corsairs, and hailed only by fustian peers, now rent in the 
grip of our eagle, and without a fane or an abiding-place. 
Let us go on, not conquerors, but Republicans, battering 
down only to rebuild more gloriously, — not narrowing the 
path of any man, but opening to high and low a broader 
destiny and a purer patriotism. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



WAR EXECUTIONS. 



To have looked upon seventeen beings of human organ- 
ism, ambition, sense of pain and of disgrace, brought for- 
ward with all the solemnities of a living funeral, and 
launched from absolute cognition to direct death, should 
put one in the category of Calcraft, Ketch, and Isaacs. 

Yet, I do not think it would be right to so classify me. 
I know an excellent clergyman, who has seen and assisted 
in fifty odd executions. He says, as I say, that each new 
one is an augmented terror. But he is upon the spot to 
smooth the felon's troubled spirit, and I am with him to 
teach the felon's boon companions the direness of the pen- 
alty. Without either the Chaplain or myself, capital pun- 
ishment would lose half its effectiveness. 

And this is why I write the present article, — to relieve 
myself from the pertinacious inquiries with which I have 
been assailed since my return from the melancholy episodes 
of the executions at Washington. I am button-holed at 
every corner, and put through a cross-examination, to 
which Holt's or Bingham's had no searchingness : ''How 
did Mrs. Suratt die ? '' " Was the rope attached to her 
left ear?" ''What sort of rope was it, for example?" 
"Do her pictures look like her ? '^ "Pray describe how 
Payne tv/isted, and whether you think Atzeroth's neck was 
dislocated ? " 

And, after answering these questions, replete as they are 
30* (353) 



354 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT . 

with horrible curiosity, the questioner turns away, saying, 
" Dear me ! I wouldn't see a man hung for a thousand dol- 
lars.'' 

I am weary of such hypocrisy, and I shall, in this paper, 
speak of some executions I have witnessed. 

I was quite a small boy, at school, when my chum and 
model, Bill Everett, dragged me off to AVa^dand's Mill, to 
see old Mrs. Kitty White suspended. She was a very in- 
famous old woman, who had been in the habit of kidnap- 
ping black children, and running them by night from the 
Eastern shore across the bay to Virginia, where they were 
sold. If they became noisy and obstreperous before they 
left her house, and suspicion fell upon her, she clove their 
skulls with a hatchet, and buried them in her garden. 
Vfhen finally discovered, the remains of nearly a score 
marked how wholesale had been her wickedness. 

This old woman was very drunk when she came to bo 
hanged, and so was the sheriff who assisted her. She 
called him impolite names, and carried a pipe in her mouth, 
and went off smoking and cursing. I remember that I cried 
very loudly, so that Bill Everett had to choke me, and saw 
ghosts for so many nights succeeding, that Crouch, our 
maid of all work, had to sit at my bedside till I fell 
asleep. 

The atrocit}^ of a crime makes great difference in one's 
desire to see its after tragedy ; and the next hanging I 
attended was almost world-famed. Four men were sus- 
pended for shooting down an entire family in cold blood. 
Thej had embarked on a raid of robbery, and emerging from 
the barren scrub of Delaware Forest, fell upon a snug and 
secluded Maryland farm-house, where the farmer's family 
were taking their supper. They fired through the ruddy 
windows, and brought the man down at his wife's feet ; she, 
in turn, fell upon her threshold, rushing forth into the dark- 
ness, and the remnant of the family perished except two 
little boys, who slipped away and gave the alarm. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 355 

The jailer's boys of Chestertown went to school with me, 
and I was invited by the least of them to visit the jail, — 
a tumble-down old structure with goggly windows, and so 
unsafe that the felons had to be ironed to almost their own 
weight. And into the cell where the four fiends were 
lying, the jailer's big boy, for a big joke, pushed me, and 
locked the door upon me. 

I was alone with the same bloody-handed men who had 
so recently, and for a trifle of gold, made the fireside a 
shamble, and the night a hov/ling terror. 

They appreciated the joke, and drew me to them, while 
"their chains clanked, and pressed to my face their wild and 
prickly beards. There was one of them, named Drummond, 
who swore he would cut my heart out, and they executed a 
sort of death-tune on the floor with their balls and links. I 
lost all knowledge and perception in my fright, and cannot, 
at this interval, remember anything succeeding, but the 
execution. They were put to death upon a single long 
scaffold, the counterpart of that erected for the Booth con- 
spirators, and the rope attached to the neck of the least 
guilty, broke when the drop fell, and cast him upon the 
ground, lacerated, but conscious, to be picked up and again 
suspended, while he begged for life, like a child. 

The sixth miscreant murdered from revenge, which is just 
a trifle better than avarice : his girl preferred another, and 
the disappointed man, Bowen, went to sea. Returning, he 
found the united lovers in the exultation of happiness ; a 
child had just been born to them, and, touched by their con- 
tent, Bowen gave the old rival his hand, and asked him out 
to accept a bumper. They drank again and again, — the 
spirits burning their blood to fire, and reviving again the 
bitter story of Bowen's love and shame. Within the hour, 
the husband lay at the jilted m.an's feet I He was con- 
demned to death, and I undertook to describe his exit for a 
weekly newspaper. 

Still I see him, broad and muscular, climbing the gallows 



356 CAMPAIGNS OF A XOX-eOMBATAXT. 

stair with his peaked cap, deathly white, and looking up at 
the sun as if he dreaded its eye. There was the muttering 
of prayers, the spasm of one spectator taken sick at the 
crisis, and the dull thump of the scaffold falling in. 

The preacher Harden, who fondled his wife on his knee, 
and fed her the while with poison, passed away so re- 
cently, that I need not revive the scene into which all his 
bad life should have been prolonged. 

The death of Armstrong, expiating a hypocrite's life 
at Philadelphia, is not so well remembered : he killed an 
old man in the heart of the city, riding in a wagon, and 
dumped him out when he reached the suburbs. His life, to 
the end, was marked by all insolence and infamy, and on 
the day of the execution, he made a pretended confession, 
inculpating two innocent persons. One hour after this, he 
made the following speech : — 

My Friends : I have a few words to say to you ; I am 
going to die ; and let me say, in passing, I die in peace with 
my Maker ; and if, at this moment, a pardon was offered 
me on condition of giving up my Maker, I would not take 
it ; and I die in peace with all the world, and forgive all my 
enemies. I desire you to take warning by my fate. Sab- 
bath-breaking was the first cause. I bid you farewell, gen- 
tlemen, (here he mentioned various oflScers), and I bid you 
all farewell. I die in peace with everybody. 

The Sheriff, very nervous, gave a signal to the drop-man 
too soon, and a serious accident very nearly occurred. The 
props were readjusted, all but the main support removed, 
and that unhinged ; the Sheriff waved his handkerchief, and 
with the dead thump of the trap-lids against their cushions, 
and the heavy jerking of the noose knot against the vic- 
tim's throat, the young murderer hung dangling in the air, 
not a limb quivering, and only a convulsive movement of 
the shoulders, to indicate the struggle which life maintained 
when giving up its place in the body. 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C02IBATANT. 357 

There was a rush forward. The doctors grasped his 
wrist. Some spectators passed their hands across his 
knees to feel the tremulous sinews ; one or two felt a 
faintuess, and a dozen made coarse jokes ; and one or more 
speculated as to the issue of his immortal part, or the de- 
gree of his pain, or the probability of his cognizance. In 
seven minutes he was beyond the reach of execution or exe- 
cutioner, and a hurdle being wheeled from the stable, they 
cut down his body, while a few scrambled for the rope, and 
it was wheeled on a run into the convict's corridor for his 
old father to claim. The neck was not broken, nor the flesh 
discolored. Some said that he died " game ; " and all went 
away, leaving the old man and a brother to sit by the re- 
mains and weep, that so great calamity had darkened their 
home and blighted their lives. Few lamented him, for he 
had youth, but none of its elements of sympathy ; and 
those who would make, even of his dying speech, a text 
and a lesson, are instancing a lie more grievous than the 
murder which he did. 

In England, I saw two men and a woman suffer death on 
the common sidewalk ; just as if we were to hang people in 
New York on the pavement before the Tombs. 

No man, anxious to see an execution in London, need bo 
disappointed. Once or twice a month the wolves are 
brought to the slaughter, and all the people are invited to 
enjoy the spectacle. A woman, one Catharine Wilson, was 
to be hanged for poisoning. She was middle aged, and had 
been reputable. Her manner of making way with folks was 
to act as sick-nurse, and mingling poison with their medi- 
cine, possess herself of the trifles upon their persons. She 
had sent six souls to their account in this way ; but, dis- 
covered in the seventh attempt, all the other cases leaked 
out. She was condemned, of course, and on the Sunday 
evening previous to the execution, as I was returning from 
Spurgeon's Tabernacle, the omnibus upon which I sat 
passed through the Old Bailey. There were the carpenters 



358 CA3iPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

joining the timbers of the scaffold, and building black 
barricades across the street. A murmuring crowd stood 
around in the solemn night, and the funereal walls of old 
Newgate glowered like a horrible vault upon the dimly-lit 
street. The public houses across the way were filled up with 
guests. All the front parlors and front bedrooms had been 
let at fat prices, and suppers were spread in them for the 
edification of their tenants. Do you remember the thrilling 
chapter of ''The Jew's last night alive,'' in " Oliver Twist? " 
Well, this waa the scene ! These were the same beams and 
uprights. There, huge, massive, and blackened with smoky 
years, rose the cold, impervious stones ; and yonder, cast- 
ing its sharp pinnacles into the sky, is the tower of St. 
Sepulchre's Church, where the bell hangs muffled for the 
morrow's tolling away of a sinner's life. Old Fagin heard 
it, though it was no new sound to him ; for Field Lane, 
where he kept his " fence," lies a very little way off, — 
little more than a stone's throw, and when, in the morning, 
I dressed at an early hour and hurried to the place of exe- 
cution, I saw Charley Bates, and the Dodger, and Nancy, 
and Toby Crackit, and the rest, shying men's hats in the air, 
and looking out for the "wipes" and the ''tickers." All 
the streets leading to Newgate were like great conduits, 
where human currents babbled along, emptying themselves 
into the Old Bailey. Mothers by the dozen were out with 
their infants, holding them aloft tenderly, to show them the 
noose and the cross-beam. Fathers came with their sons, 
and explained very carefully to them the method of strangu- 
lation. Little girls, on their way to workshops, had turned 
aside to see the playful afiair, and traders in fancy soap and 
shoe-blacking, pea-nuts and shrimps, Banbury cakes, and 
Chelsea buns, and Yarmouth bloaters, were making the 
morning hilarious with their odd cries and speeches. Along 
the chimney-pots of Green Arbour Court, where Goldsmith 
penned the " Vicar of Wakefield," lads and maidens were 
climbing, that they might have commanding places. There 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N0N-C03IBATANT. 359 

was one young woman who had some difficulty in climbing 
over a battlement, and the mob hailed her failure with roars 
of mirth. But she persevered, though there was a high 
wind blowing, and then called loudly for her male attendant 
to follow her. He obeyed dutifully, and they both seated 
themselves upon a chimney-top, — a picture of love re- 
warded, — and v/aited for the show. The moments, as 
marked upon St. Sepulchre's clock, went grudgingly, as 
if the index-hands were unwilling to shoulder the responsi- 
bility of what was to come. Meantime, the police had their 
hands full ; for some merry urchins were darting between 
their legs, and it was dangerous to keep one's hat on his 
head, for it hazarded plucking off and shying here and there. 
At the chamber-windows aforesaid, crowded the tipsy occu- 
pants, men and women, red-eyed with drinking, and leering 
stupidly upon the surging heads below. Some asked if Cal- 
craft did the "job," and others volunteered sketches of Cal- 
craft's life. One man boasted that he had taken a pot of 
beer with him, and another added that the hangman's chil- 
dren and his own went to school together. " He pockets," 
said the man, '•' two-pun ten for every one he drops, besides 
his travelling expenses, and he has put away three hundred 
and twenty folks. He is a clever fellow, is Calcraft, and he 
is going to retire soon." 

So the hours passed ; the great clock-hands journeyed on- 
ward ; all eyes watched them attentively ; suddenly the 
deep bells struck a terrible one — two — three — four — 
five — six — seven — eight, and the bells of the neighbor- 
hood answered, some hoarsely, others musically, others 
faintly, as if ashamed. 

Before the tones had died away, three persons appeared 
upon the scaflbld, — a woman, pinioned and wearing a long, 
sharp, snowy, shrewdy, death-cap ; a man in loose black 
robes with a white neckhandkerchief, and a burly, surly 
fellow, in black cloth, bareheaded, and having a curling 
jetty beard around his heavy jaws. It is but a moment, 



360 CAMPAIGNS OF A N0X-C03IBATA]S'T. 

that, standing on tiptoe, you catch this scene. The priest 
stretches his hand toward the people, and says some unin- 
telligible words ; those of the mob curse each other, and 
some scream out that they are dying in the press. Then 
the scaffold is clear ; the woman stands alone, — God for- 
give her! — and when you look again, a bundle of old 
clothes, tipped with a sugar-loaf, is all that is visible, and 
the gallows-cord is very straight and tight. For the last 
chapter, consult the graveyard within the jail walls ! 

The guillotining which I witnessed in Paris, in the month 
of June, 1864, may be deemed worthy of an extended de- 
scription : — 

Couty de la Pommerais was a young physician of Paris, 
descended from a fine family, and educated beyond the re- 
quirements of a French Faculty. He was handsome and 
manly, and gave evidences of ambition at an early age. 
He was popularly called the Comte de la Pommerais, and 
at the time of his apprehension, was expecting a decoration 
from the Papal Government, with the rank he desired. 
Like all French students, he was incontinent, and had seve- 
ral mistresses. The last of these was a widow named Pauw, 
who appears to have loved him sincerely. She had some 
little fortune, which they consumed together ; and then la 
Pommerais married a rich young lady, with whom he lived 
one year. Her mother died suddenly at the end of that 
time, and as la Pommerais was interested in getting certain 
moneys which the elder lady controlled, the manner of her 
death led to suspicions of poisoning. However, the w^oman 
was interred, but the son-in-law was not so fortunate as he 
supposed, and he ceased to live with his wife, but returned 
to Madame Pauw, who still adored him. Upon this fond, 
foolish woman he seems to have premeditated a deep and 
intricate crime ; and it w^as for this that he suffered death. 
She must have been dishonest like himself, for she consented 
to a scheme of swindling the insurance companies ; but, un- 
like himself, she lacked the wit to be silent, and was heard 



CAMFAiGNS OF A XOX-CO:.IP>ATA2>'T. 3G1 

to hint mysteriously that she should soon be grand and 
happy. La Pommerais persuaded her to have her life in- 
sured, which was done for 515,000 francs, or upward of 
$100,000. When the matter had transpired some time, he 
persuaded her to feign sickness. The simple woman asked 
why she should do so. 

" The insurance people,'' he replied, "will, when they 
consider that you arc dangerously ill, prefer to give you 
100,000f., rather than pay the 515,000f. in the certainty of 
your death. You can give them up your policy, accept 
the compromise, get well again, and be rich.'' 

Yet this counterfeited sickness was meant by the villian 
to prepare the neighbors of Mme. Pauw for the death 
which he intended to ensue. He was to make it known to 
all, that she was dangerously ill ; she was to uphold his 
testimony ; and he was to kill her in due time, and take the 
whole of the insurance. At length, the farce was finished. 
La Pommerais gave to Mme. Pauw, a poison difficult to de- 
tect, called digiialline, the essential principle of our common 
foxglove ; she died unconscious of his deception, loving 
him to the last, and he claimed the 515,000 francs at the in- 
surance office. He was suspected, accused, and tried. 
The old suspicions relative to his mother-in-law v/ere re- 
vived ; the bodies were exhumed and examined ; upon evi- 
dence entirely circumstantial and technical, he was con- 
victed, and sentenced to be guillotined. His learning and 
standing made the trial a famous one ; his bearing during 
the long proceedings was calm and collected ; he was 
handsome, and had much sympathy : but the jury found 
him guilty, and the Emperor refused to extend his clemency 
to the case. He was put in a strait jacket and locked up 
in La Roquette, the prison for the condemned. 

The prison of La Roqueite (or the Rocket Prison) is situ- 
ated in the eastern suburbs of Paris, a mile beyond the 
Bastile. It does not look unlike our American jails ; a high 
exterior wall of rough stone, over the top of which one 
31 



362 CAMPAIGNS OF A NOX-COMBATAXT. 

gets a glimpse of the prison gables, with a huge gate in 
the arched portal, guarded forever by sentinels. Before 
this gate is a small open plot of ground, planted with trees. 
Eiie de la Iloquette passes between it and a second prison, 
immediately facing the first, called the Prison cles Jeunes 
Detenus, or, as we would say in America, the ''House of 
Eefuge.'' Standing between the two jails, and looking 
away from Paris, one will see the great metropolitan cem- 
etery of Fe?^e la Chaise, scarcely a stone's throw distant, 
and behind him will be the great ahhatoir or public slaugh- 
ter-house of Menilmontant, with the vast area of roofs and 
spires of Paris stretching beyond it to the horizon. It 
was to this region of vacant lots and lonesome, glowering 
houses, that thousands of Parisians bent their steps the 
night before the execution. The news had gone abroad 
that la Pommerais would not be pardoned. It was also 
generally credited that this would be the last execution 
ever held in Paris, since there is a general desire for the 
abolition of capital punishment in France, and a conviction 
that the Legislature, at its next session, will substitute life- 
imprisonment. This, with the rarity of the event, and that 
terrible allurement of blood which distinguishes all popu- 
laces, brought out all the excitable folk of the town ; and 
at dusk, on the night before the expiation, the whole neigh- 
borhood of La Roquette was crowded with men and women. 
All classes of Parisians were there, — the blouses, or work- 
ingmen, standing first in number; the students from the 
Latin Quartier being well represented, and idlers, and well- 
dressed nondescripts without enumeration, — distributing 
themselves among women, dogs, and babies. 

Venders of gateaux, muscles, and fruit were out in force. 
The ''Savage of Paris," clothed in his war plumes, paint, 
greaves, armlets, and moccasins, was selling razors by gas- 
light ; here and there ballad-mongers were singing the 
latest songs, and boys, with chairs to let, elbowed into the 
intricacies of the crowd, which amused itself all the night 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMDATANT. 363 

long- by smoking, drinking", and hallooing. At last, the 
mass became formidable in numbers, covering every inch 
of ground within sight of the prison, and many soldiers 
and sergea7its de ville, mounted and on foot, pushed through 
the dense mass to restore order. 

At midnight, a body of cavalry forced back the people 
from the square of La Roquette. A number of workmen, 
issuing from the prison-gates, proceeded to set up the instru- 
ment of death by the light of blazing torches. The flame 
lit up the dark jail walls, and shone on the helmets and 
cuirasses of the sabre-men, and flared upon spots of the up- 
turned faces, now bringing them into strong, ruddy relief, 
now plunging them into shadow. AVhen the several pieces 
had been framed together, we had a real guillotine in view, — 
the same spectre at which thousands of good and bad men 
had shuddered ; and the folks around it, peering up so 
eagerly, were descendants of those who stood on the Place 
cJe la Concorde to v/itness the head of a king roll into the 
common basket. Imagine two tall, straight timbers, a foot 
apart, rising fifteen feet from the ground. They are 
grooved, and spring from a wide platform, approached by a 
flight of steps. At the base, rests a spring-plank or bascule, 
to which le^ather thongs are attached to buckle down the 
victim, and a basket or pannier filled with sawdust to 
receive the severed head. Between these, at their summit, 
hangs the shining knife in its appointed grooves, and a cord, 
which may be disconnected by a jerk, holds it to its posi- 
tion. Two men will be required to work the instrument 
promptly, — the one to bind the condemned, the other to 
drop the axe. The bascide is so arranged that the whole 
weight and length of the trunk will rest upon it-, leaving the 
head and neck free, and when prone it will reach to the 
grooves, leaving space for the knife to pass below it. The 
knife itself is short and wide, with a bright concave edge, 
and a rim of heavy steel ridges it at tlie top ; it moves 
easily in the greased grooves, and may v/eigh forty pounds. 



3G4 a\MPAIGNS OF A NON-C©31BATANT. 

It has a terrible fascination, hanging so high and so lightly 
in the blaze of the torches, which play and glitter upon it, 
and cast stains of red light along its keen blade, as if by 
their brilliance all its past blood-marks had become visible 
again. A child may send it shimmering and crashing to 
the scaffold, but only God can fasten together the warm and 
throbbing parts which it shall soon dissever. And now that 
the terrible creature has been recreated, the workmen slink 
away, as if afraid of it, and a body of soldiers stand guard 
upon it, as if they fear that it might grow thirsty and in- 
satiate as in the days of its youth. The multitude press up 
again, reinforced ever}^ hour, and at last the pale day climbs 
over the jail-walls, and waiting people see each other by its 
glimmer. The bells of Notre Dame peal out ; a hundred 
towers fall into the march of the music ; the early jour- 
nals are shrieked by French newsboys, and folks begin to 
count the minutes on their watches. There are men on the 
ground who saw the first guillotine at work. They describe 
the click of the cleaver, the steady/ n:iarc]i of victims upon the 
scaffold-stairs, the rattle of the death-cart turning out of the 
Bue Saint Honore, the painted executioners, with their drip- 
ping hands, wiping away the jets of blood from the hard, rough 
faces ; nay ! the step of the young queen, white-haired with 
care, but very beautiful, who bent her body as she had 
never bent her knee, and paid the penal t}^ of her pride with 
the neck which a king had fondled. 

At four minutes to six o'clock on Thursday morning, the 
wicket in the prison-gate swung open ; the condemned ap- 
peared, with his hands tied behind his back, and his knees 
bound together. He walked with difficulty, so fettered ; 
but other than the artificial restraints, there was no hesita- 
tion nor terror in his movements. His hair, which had been 
long, dark, and wavy, was severed close to his scalp ; his 
beard had likewise been clipped, and the fine moustache 
and goatee, which had set off his most interesting face, no 
longer appeared to enhance his romantic, expressive physi- 



CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-CO^IBATANT. obO 

ognomy. Yet his black eyes and cleanly cut mouth, nos- 
trils, and eyebrows, demoustrated that Gouty de la Pom- 
merais was not a beauty dejDendent upon small accessories. 
There was a dignity even in his painful gait ; the coarse 
prison-shirt, scissored low in the neck, exhibited the 
straight columnar throat and swelling chest ; for the rest, 
he wore only a pair of black pantaloons and his own 
shapely boots. As he emerged from the wicket, the chill 
morning air, laden with the dew of the truck gardens near 
at hand, blew across the open spaces of the suburbs, and 
smote him with a cold chill. He was plainly seen to trem- 
ble ; but in an instant, as if by the mere force of his will, 
he stood motionless, and cast a first and only glance at the 
guillotine straight before him. It was the glance of a man 
who meets an enemy's eye, not shrinkingly, but half-defiant, 
as if even the bitter retribution could not abash his strong 
courage. The dramatic manner which is characteristic of 
the most real and earnest incidents of French life had its 
fascination for la Pommerais, even at his death-hour. Not 
Mr. Booth nor Mr. Forrest could have expressed the rally- 
ing, startling, almost thrilling recognition of an instrument 
of death, better than this actual criminal, whose last winkful 
of daylight was blackened by the guillotine. It reminded 
one of Damon, in the pitch of the tragedy : — 
■| 
" I stjiul upon the scaffold — I ain standing on my throne." 

His dark e^^e was scintillant ; his nostril grew full ; his 
shoulders fell back as if to exhibit his broad, compact figure 
in manlier outline ; he seemed to feel that forty thousand 
men and women, and young children were looking upon him 
to see luow he dared to die, and that for a generation his 
bearing should go into fireside descriptions. Then he 
moved on betvv^een the files of soldiers at his shuffling pace, 
and before him went the aumomnr or chaplain, swaying the 



366 CAMPAIGNS OF A NON-COMBATANT. 

crucifix, behind liim tlic execiitioFier of Versailles — a rough 
a,iid bearded man — to assist in the final horror. 

It was at this intense moment a most wonderful spectacle. 
As the prisoner had first appeared, a single great shout had 
shaken the multitude. It was the French word " Voila.f 
which means ^' Behold ! " " See ! " Then every spectator 
stood on tiptoe ; the silence of death succeeded ; all the 
close street was undulant with human motion ; a few house 
roofs near by were dizzy with folks who gazed down from 
the tiles ; ail the way up the heights of Pere la Chaise, among 
the pale chapels and monuments of the dead, the thousands 
of stirred beings swung and shook like so many drowned 
corpses floating on the sea. Every evQ and mind turned to 
the little structure raised among the trees, on the space 
before La Hoquetie, and there they saw a dark, shaven, dis 
robed young man, going quietly toward his grave. 

He mounted the steps deliberately, looking toward his 
feet ; the priest held up the crucifix, and he felt it was 
there, but did not see it; his lips one moment touched the 
image of Christ, but he did not look up nor speak ; then, as 
he gained the last step, the bascule or swingboard sprang 
up before him ; the executioner gave him a single push, and 
he fell prone upon the plank, with his face downward ; it 
gave way before him, bearing him into the sj^ace between 
the upright beams, and he lay horizontally beneath the 
knife, presenting the back of his neck to it. Thus resting, 
he could look into the poMuier or basket, into whose saw- 
dust lining his head v.^as to drop in a moment. And in that 
awful space, while all the people gazed with their fingers 
tingling, the legitimate Parisian executioner gave a jerk at 
the cord which held the fatal knife. With a quick, keen 
sound, the steel became detached ; it fell hurtling through 
the grooves ; it struck something with a dead, dumb thump ; 
a jet of bright blood spurted into the light, and dyed the 
face of an attendant horribly red ; and Cout}^ de la Pomme- 
rais's liead lay in the sawdust of the pannier, while every 



CAMPAIGNS OF A N0X-C03IBATANT. 307 

vein in the lopped trunk trickled upon the scaffold-floor I 
They threw a cloth upon the carcass and carried away the 
pannier ; the guillotine disappeared benCvath the surround- 
inc: heads ; loud exclamations and acclaims burst from the 
multitude ; the venders of trash and edibles resumed their 
cheerful cries, and a hearse dashed through the mass, car- 
r^dng the warm body of the guillotined to the cemetery of 
Mt. Parnasse. In thirty minutes, newsboys were hawking 
the scene of the execution upon all the quaj^s and bridges. 
In every cafe of Paris some witness was telling the incidents 
of the show to breathless listeners, and the crowds which 
stopped to see the funeral procession of the great Marshal 
Pelissier divided their attention between the warrior and 
the poisoner, — the latter dbtaining the preponderance of 
fame. 

I wonder sometimes, if the ultimate penalty, however 
enforced, greatly assists example, or dignifies justice. But 
this would involve a very long controversy, over which 
many sage heads have sadly ached. 

In the open daylight, when my face is shining*, and my 
life secure, I take the humanitarian side, and denounce the 
barbarities of the gibbet. 

But when I com*e dov/n the dark stairs of the daily paper 
office, after midnight, and see three or four stealthy fellows 
hiding in the shadows, and go up the black city unarmed 
with my pocket full of greenbacks, I think the gallows 
quite essential as a warning, and indorse it, even aftei* 
seventeen executions. 

So end my desultory chapters of desultory life. It has 
been, in the arranging of them, difficult to reject material, — 
not to select it. I am amazed to find what a world of dead 
leaves lies around my feet, as if I were a tree that blos- 
somed and shed its covering every day. There are baskets- 
full of copy still remaining, from which the temptation is 
great to gather. It is sad to have written so much at 
twenty-five, and j^et to have only drifting convictions. I 



3G8 CAjirAiGxs of a non-com dat a xt. 



£}p. 



may have sacceedcd in depicting the lives of certain young 
gentlemen who reported the war. All of us, who were 
young, loved the business, and were glad to quit it. Foi 
myself, I am weary of travel ; rather than publish again 
from these fragments of my fugitive life, let me weave their 
material into a more poetic story, softened by some years 
c^ stay at home. 



xi-;./ -^ 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 701 242 A f 





